December 17, 2019

Remembering Former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher


FILE - In this June 12, 1979 file photo, Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Ind., center, reads a telegram to the United States Senate that he and seven other mayors sent regarding a proposal to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, in Pittsburgh, Penn., during the U.S. Conference of Mayors. - AP photo

FILE - In this June 12, 1979 file photo, Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Ind., center, reads a telegram to the United States Senate that he and seven other mayors sent regarding a proposal to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, in Pittsburgh, Penn., during the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

AP photo
Michael Puente, WBEZ

The man who served as one of the first African American mayors of a large U.S. city died Dec. 13.  Richard Hatcher spent 20 years leading Gary, Indiana, once known as the City of the Century.

It attracted throngs of European immigrants and southern blacks to work in its giant steel mills. The two groups often didn’t get along. But Hatcher tried to change that.

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