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A Tribute to the Late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear the news of the untimely death of my dear friend Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones on August 20, 2008. I can still remember the night that my husband, Dr. Maurice A. E. Soremekun, told me. I was serving as a public scholar and professor at Indiana University–Purdue University in Indianapolis, and he called me from Cleveland to inform me about what had happened. I remember quite clearly that I could not believe it, and I had tremendous difficulty sleeping that night and for many other nights to come. I first met Congresswoman Tubbs Jones several years ago after I established the Center for the Study and Development of Minority Businesses at Kent State University (formerly the Minority Business Program). I went to meet with her in her office in Shaker Heights and told her about the activities I was engaged in to help promote a stronger entrepreneurial ethos in Cleveland as well as the entrepreneurial training programs that I had developed to help Clevelanders create new businesses and wealth for their communities. That meeting lasted for about an hour and a half, and we developed an immediate rapport and a respect for each other. By the end of that meeting, she was on the phone connecting me with many influential people across this country. That was vintage Congresswoman Tubbs Jones at her best. She always liked to help people and to see the best in others. Through the years, our friendship grew as we continued to work in the arena of economic development, and she was a strong supporter of the Entrepreneurial Academy of the Cleveland Empowerment Zone, which I directed and established incollaborationwiththecityofCleveland;theformerdirectorofEconomicDevelopment (Steven Sims); members of the Cleveland City Council whose wards were in Hough, Glenville, Fairfax, and the Midtown Corridor; the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation; the Glenville Development Corporation; Midtown Cleveland; and the Consortium for Economic and Community Development. During her many years in public office, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones was a brilliant and articulate spokesperson for the underprivileged and underserved. She worked tirelessly on many issues, among them predatory lending, enhancing xiii the quality of education in the Cleveland public schools, developing avenues for affordable health care, providing opportunities for entrepreneurial development. She was a consummate professional who always looked for opportunities to build bridges of understanding across class, religious, racial, gender, and ethnic lines. She used her strong intellectual skills to argue persuasively for many acts of legislation that she believed would provide a better quality of life for all Americans . Through her personification of excellence in all of its various facets, she demonstrated quite convincingly that African American people, when given an opportunity, can perform as good as or, in some cases, better than anyone else. ThereweremanythingsthatIadmiredaboutCongresswomanTubbsJones,one of which was that in spite of the fact that she was one of the most highly exalted public figures in America, she never lost the common touch. She always remembered where she came from and her early Cleveland roots. We met a number of times through the years, and no matter where I saw her, she would always stop what she was doing and talk to me for a while, then give me a warm hug when we were done. We became good friends, and I admired her enormously. She was a truly beautiful person with a wonderful smile that could simply light up an entire room whenever she entered it. And so we ask, how can one ever take the place of a Stephanie Tubbs Jones? It will be difficult to replace her high level of authenticity, passion, warmth, brilliance , humility, determination, and ingenuity and her wonderful capacity to do extraordinary things to help humanity. Like so many others in this country, I loved her dearly and will always cherish the memories of our wonderful times together. Although she is gone, she will never be forgotten. xiv tribute ...

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