One day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (then running for president) came to the City Club of Cleveland and gave what many consider to be one of the most important speeches of the 20th century.
In his "Mindless Menace of Violence" speech, Sen. Kennedy said in part:
Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily--whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence--whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.
Sadly, Kennedy himself was shot dead just two months later. Now, 50 years later, the City Club honored his memory with a special event Thursday.
Sen. Kennedy's daughter, Kerry, came to Cleveland to discuss the legacy of her father's speech and how his words can apply to today's society. WKYC's Russ Mitchell and Antioch Baptist Church Senior Pastor Rev. Todd C. Davidson also sat down with Kennedy.
