JAMES W. STOKES, JR.

James W. Stokes, Jr. has a legacy of history-making achievements as an entrepreneur and advocate.

• At the age of 19 Mr. Stokes entered into entrepreneurship with the start of the Canton Courier, a weekly newspaper named after his hometown, Canton, Ohio. It was the first African American paper published in 150 years.
• In 1968 with only $20 in his pocket, he founded Color Inc., a silk screening company that went on to generate over $12 million in sales in its first year of operation doing business with some 247 companies. Mr. Stokes set up an umbrella board consisting of the chairmen, presidents and vice presidents of Fortune 500 companies. The umbrella board was committed to having major corporations assist in increasing the sales of small minority firms. To further this mission, in 1972 Mr. Stokes became one of the founders of the Black Manufacturers Association.
• Mr. Stokes served as Executive Director of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) Chicago Chapter for five years. In 1975 he founded Marketing House, Inc., a company whose sole mission was to represent the products, goods, and services of small businesses in the retail markets. Through this initiative small businesses gained entrance into the doors of several Fortune 500 companies. Marketing House, Inc. produced over $12 million in sales to major corporations such as McDonald’s Corporation, TWA and Sears and Roebuck, Co.
• Fueled by the desire to seek out means by which the playing field could be leveled, in 1982 he became involved with minority and non-minority food manufacturers. Mr. Stokes developed distribution agreements with small independent food distributors and began supplying food products to Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, the Canton School District in Ohio, and the Chicago City Colleges. A contract was also awarded to supply Amtrak with prepared sandwiches. In addition to the food products being supplied, specialty bags were sold to the Frito Lay Company in Canton, Ohio.
• In 1994 he incorporated JW Holding Group & Associates, Inc. and began obtaining large government contracts. The company has been awarded a number of substantial contracts including: a $12.5 million Prime Vendor/Buyer contract in 1995 to provide food items to five federal prisons located in the northeast corridor of the United States; a second Prime Vendor contract in 1996 for $37.8 million to feed the troops in Bosnia (the contract grew to over $57 million in sales); and a 2003 Prime Vendor contract from the Department of Defense to service Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. In 1997 the company received several awards including: The Most Valuable Prime Vendor Award from the Department of Defense, The Most Outstanding Socio-Economic Program Vendor (qualifying more small/disadvantaged companies to do business with the Department of Defense), and The Most Outstanding Mentor/Protégé Program. It is important to note that none of the prime vendor contracts were awarded based upon minority status, but instead were won competitively.
• Mr. Stokes has worked with the United States Department of Agriculture on rural and urban development projects. From this collaboration he developed alliances with a number of universities including Alcorn University, Grambling and Louisiana State Universities, Florida A&M University, Tuskegee, Southern University, Vincennes University, Purdue University, and Valley State University to name a few. The initiative also allowed the company to align itself with over 21,000 family farmers. Over the years vehicles have been put in place to eliminate the middleman, affording the family farmer to not only be competitive but to also realize a greater amount of the profit.
• In 2005 Mr. Stokes semi-retired and began working as a Consultant to city, state, and federal government agencies who desired to increase their participation with small and minority businesses. One of the major deficits for small and minority businesses is the inability to secure adequate financing to 1) bid on competitive contracts, and 2) to obtain necessary credit lines to foster needed cash flow once a contract has been awarded. As a result, Mr. Stokes is in the process of establishing a technical and financial support team to facilitate the monetary goals and obligations of companies who have received contract awards.
• In 2006 Mr. Stokes’ interest evolved to the larger society. He became an Advisor to the Marshall Plan for Cities and through his network and resources of industrial, construction, engineering, logistics, and public administration, began to develop and institute projects that would solve many of the deficits that have historically hamstrung both urban and rural communities.

The projects have been designed to re-train displaced persons, create new and affordable housing, provide a variety of employment and business opportunities, move residents into self-sufficiency, and build vertical-integrated industries that are inter-linked to increasing population sizes so that tax bases within these areas can be revitalized. The first undertaking is to rebuild the city of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Mr. Stokes has selected Mound Bayou as the flagship because of its status as the first African American city in the state with an interesting story to tell.

• Mr. Stokes has continuously added ingredients to his economic movement and has become respected worldwide for his having long range intuitiveness, competence, marketing, sales and management savvy. His motto, “A desire to serve and the ability to produce” has brought him to this incredible phase in history. The “flower” of years of work to build a unique marketing concept and program that combines institutions, academia, government, private industry, and family farmers with urban and rural development, has emerged into a further dedication of making the American Dream of equal opportunity available to all, especially to those classes of persons/businesses/communities who are disadvantaged. It is his belief that the progress which has been made in making this dream a reality in the social and political spheres must be matched by comparable progress in the economic sphere. Langston Hughes said it all when he said: “There’s a dream in this land with its back against the wall; to save the dream for one it must be saved for all.”