Bruce W. Klunder

Life Klunder graduated in science from Oregon State University in 1958. While attending the school, he met his future wife, Joanne Lehman. The couple married on December 22, 1956. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1961. After college, Klunder and his wife moved to Cleveland where he was hired as assistant executive secretary of the Student Christian Union at Western Reserve University. He quickly became involved in the city's civil rights fight. He had a passionate interest in civil rights, headed the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and led a restaurant sit-in in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1962. He and his wife had two young children at the time. Cleveland police eventually used tear gas to disperse the crowds, which numbered more than 3,500 protesters. Klunder's death polarized the Cleveland community. Some saw his death as an inevitable result of the breakdown of law and order. Others viewed his activism as an act of love.

In 2013, the Stephen E. Howe Elementary School on Lakeview Road, whose construction sparked the protests, was torn down and long-time Cleveland residents were interviewed about its history. Rev. E Theophilus Caviness of the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church was at the scene in 1964; he told The Plain Dealer: "Every time I pass that school, it's sacred ground. It's a sacred location to all of us who were here and saw what the struggle was all about."