On April 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy flew to Indianapolis for a planned inner-city rally promoting his presidential campaign, and was informed upon landing about King's assassination. Kennedy was told that riots had broken out in other cities and was advised not to make the speech, but he proceeded to address the gathered crowd at 17th and Broadway, near the site where the memorial now stands. Instead of a campaign stump speech, he delivered a five-minute improvised statement informing the crowd of King's death and urging racial reconciliation. No riots took place in Indianapolis, a fact many attribute to the effect of Kennedy's speech.
The idea to create the Landmark for Peace was originally suggested by Indiana Democratic politico Larry Conrad. Before his death Conrad befriended Steve Mannheimer, an Indianapolis Star art critic and Herron School of Art professor. They once spoke at length about the need to commemorate the events of April 4, 1968, and Robert Kennedy's speech to a crowd gathered near the corner of 17th and Broadway streets in Indianapolis. At the time Conrad was an executive with the Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based shopping mall developers, and a close friend of Herb Simon and his wife Diane, who had been a worker in RFK's campaign at the time of his speech. Conrad suggested that should a memorial be created, the Simon family would offer its support.
In 1994 Donnie Walsh, president and CEO of the Indiana Pacers, owned by the Simon brothers, decided to start the Pacers Foundation to support worthy community initiatives. Walsh discussed his plans with Mannheimer, who recounted to Walsh the earlier conversation with Conrad. Walsh immediately seized on the idea of a memorial as an ideal project to launch the Foundation and asked Mannheimer to work with Pacers executive Kathryn Jordan on the project. Together Mannheimer and Jordan developed a plan to hold a national design competition to create a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The Pacers and the Pacers Foundation led community fundraising efforts for the project; beginning with Diane Simon donating $30,000 to the project.
Jurors for the competition included Bret Waller, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Harry Robinson, professor of architecture at Howard University. From a national field of over 50 entries, the jury selected the proposal by designer Greg Perry, a 33-year-old artist from Franklin, Indiana. Perry's design featured two half-figures, one of King, the other of Kennedy, emerging from solid walls flanking a pathway to reach toward each other. It was an inspired design that captured the historical importance of these two great Americans and powerfully expressed the spirit of reconciliation and the striving for peace people still found in the story of their lives—and deaths. Before the actual construction of the memorial began, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held on May 14, 1994. This event attracted President Bill Clinton, Senator Ted Kennedy, RFK's widow Ethel Kennedy, two sons of Dr. King, Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King, III, as well as other Indiana and national dignitaries.
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