City Club of Cleveland

The City Club of Cleveland was incorporated in 1912 as a non-partisan forum for debate conceived in the ideals of the Progressive Era. The club's home is the City Club Building, formerly the Citizens Building, in Downtown Cleveland. Known as "America's Citadel of Free Speech," it is the longest continuous independent free speech forum in the country.

The City Club is committed to informing, connecting and motivating citizens in the Cleveland and beyond. Membership is open to anyone and all programs are open to the general public, although members are charged lower prices to attend most forums and given preference in making reservations to certain programs.

The City Club has hosted sitting U.S. Presidents and Vice-Presidents and other notable citizens of the United States and the world. Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the club "a beacon, a symbol and a sentinel for freedom, for justice, for tolerance" when he spoke there.

The first President to have appeared at the City Club was Theodore Roosevelt; every President since Jimmy Carter has appeared at its podium. President George W. Bush spoke to the club on the third anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq. Because the City Club of Cleveland does not allow questions from the audience to be pre-screened, President Ronald Reagan declined to appear before the Club, but when questions were raised by the media about his mental acuity, Reagan sought out an appearance before the Club to refute those charges.

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy gave his "On the Mindless Menace of Violence" speech at the club.

In 1976, as part of the United States Bicentennial, the club held a forum in Britain, the club's first outside the United States.

Debates before the Club have swayed Ohio elections. Before John Glenn defeated Howard Metzenbaum in the 1974 Democratic Senate primary, Glenn responded to a charge in an earlier debate that he never had to make a payroll: