The City Club of Cleveland

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The seed for The City Club of Cleveland was planted in June 1912 when Mayo Fesler, secretary of the Municipal Association, and Western Reserve University professor Augustus Hatton invited a group of civic-minded young men to discuss the possibility of a city club in Cleveland. Throughout the Progressive Era, citizens organized city clubs in many major cities—New York, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and many others who, similar to Cleveland, had a citizenry that cared about improving municipal governance and strengthening the community. Fesler and Hatton believed a city club would help Cleveland citizens find solutions to some of the problems vexing the city. Six weeks later, the committee formed to investigate the idea reported: “A city club will furnish a meeting place for men of all shades of opinion, political beliefs, and social relations,” adding that “accurate information on public questions is a fundamental need in all our cities, and … a free, open discussion of these problems is the most effective way of securing and disseminating such information.”

After a few meetings, those early leaders formally established The City Club of Cleveland on October 27, 1912. The first forum was held later that year, featuring a dialogue with Cleveland Mayor Newton D. Baker, Cincinnati Mayor Thomas Hunt, and Toledo Mayor Brand Whitlock. Today, we remain one of the oldest continuously operating free speech forums in the United States. The City Club has hosted a vast list of speakers from all walks of life, including Babe Ruth, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Shirley MacLaine, Eliot Ness, Rosa Parks, Robert F. Kennedy, W.E.B. Du Bois, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among thousands of others. Every sitting U.S. President since Ronald Reagan in 1988 has addressed the City Club. On April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Robert F. Kennedy put aside his prepared remarks to the City Club and delivered the "On the Mindless Menace of Violence" speech to a crowd of 1,200, breaking with City Club tradition and taking no questions.

At the heart of the City Club’s format lies the question-and-answer period that takes place during the second half of each program. During these sessions of authentic, unscreened, and unscripted questions from the audience, the true nature of the City Club reveals itself. We are the place where speakers and ideas are challenged and tested, where citizen voice is prized, and where our community grows stronger. 

Whitlockbakerhunt

Toledo Mayor Brand Whitlock, here flanked by Mayors Henry Thomas Hunt of Cincinnati (at left) and Newton D. Baker of Cleveland, addressed the first City Club forum on December 21, 1912. Although the photograph is undated, all three men attended a conference sponsored by the Municipal Association of Cleveland held in Columbus, Ohio, in January 1912. Baker, a founder of The City Club of Cleveland, served two terms as mayor of Cleveland, following which he was tapped by President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of War.

In 1916, Ralph Hayes, then the Secretary of the City Club, penned our creed. 

The City Club Creed

I hail and harbor and hear persons of every belief and party; for within my portals prejudice grows less and bias dwindles.  

I have a forum – as wholly uncensored as it is rigidly impartial. “Freedom of Speech” is graven above my rostrum; and beside it, “Fairness of Speech.”  

I am the product of the people, a cross section of their community—weak as they are weak, and strong in their strength; believing that knowledge of our failings and our powers begets a greater strength.  

I have a house of fellowship; under my roof informality reigns and strangers need no introduction.  

I welcome to my platform the discussion of any theory or dogma of reform; but I bind my household to the espousal of none of them, for I cherish the freedom of every person’s conviction and each of my kin retains his own responsibility.  

I have no axe to grind, no logs to roll. My abode shall be the rendezvous of strong but open-minded men and my watchword shall be “information” not “reformation.”  

I am accessible to people of all sides—literally and figuratively—for I am located in the heart of the city—spiritually and geographically. 

I am the city’s club—The City Club. 

This creed continues to guide us today, as a call to action. We frequently tell visitors that though we are agnostic about the issues we discuss in the forum or the outcomes and policies that result from them, we are fierce advocates of engagement by community members from all sides of every issue of importance. 

Working in that way for more than a century, the City Club’s actions have earned it a national reputation as a “citadel of free speech,” and secured it a place in history as an impartial, vital center for community debate.

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