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FILE - In this April 17, 2011 file photo, Ragen Hatcher poses for a photo with her father, former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, during her Gary mayoral campaign. Hatcher, who became one of the first black mayors of a big U.S. city when he was elected in 1967, died Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. He was 86.
AP Photo/Joe RaymondUpdated Dec. 17, 2019 at 12:50 p.m.
Funeral services are set for Saturday for former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher at the northwestern Indiana city's Genesis Convention Center.
A public visitation is scheduled from noon to 8 p.m. Friday at the downtown Gary convention center, where Hatcher will lie in state. His funeral services are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at the center. Both events are open to the public.
Hatcher died Friday, Dec. 13 at age 86.
He was 34 when he was elected Gary's mayor in 1967, becoming one of the first black mayors of a big U.S. city.
Hatcher became the political face of Gary and a political force for blacks after his ground-breaking election. He had to overcome opposition from the local Democratic machine to become mayor of what was then Indiana's second-largest city. He went on to serve five terms.
He also organized the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary and worked on Jesse Jackson's Democratic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988.
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