Everything about East St Louis Illinois totally explained
East St. Louis is a city located in
St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the
Mississippi River from
St. Louis, Missouri. As of the
2000 census, the city had a total population of 31,542. One of the highlights of the city's waterfront is the
Gateway Geyser, the tallest fountain in the
United States, which spews water to a height of 630 feet and is designed to mirror the
Gateway Arch across the river in
St. Louis.
History
East St. Louis' original name was "Illinoistown."
On November 21,
1915, the
Liberty Bell began its day's journey in East St. Louis on its nationwide tour returning to
Philadelphia from the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition in
San Francisco. After that trip, the Liberty Bell returned to Philadelphia and hasn't been moved since.
Several destructive tornadoes have hit East St. Louis, the deadliest being the
St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado of
1896 which killed at least 255, injured over 1000, and incurred an estimated $2.9 billion in damages (1997 USD).
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and The St. Louis Commune
A period of extensive industrial growth following the
American Civil War contributed to a major economic collapse known as the
Panic of 1873. This was due to railroad and other manufacturing expansion, land speculation and general business optimism caused by large profits from inflation. The economic recession began in the East and steadily moved west, severely crippling the railroads, the main system of transportation. In response to the difficulties, railroad companies began dramatically lowering workers' wages, forcing employees to work without pay as well as cutting jobs and the amount of paid work hours. These wage cuts and additional money-saving tactics used by the industry prompted strikes and unrest on a massive scale.
While most of the strikes in the eastern cities during 1877 were accompanied by violence and mayhem, the late July 1877
St. Louis strike was marked by a bloodless, efficient and quick take-over by dissatisfied workers of commerce and transportation in the area. By July 22, the
St. Louis Commune began to take shape as representatives from almost all the railroad lines met in East St. Louis. They soon elected an executive committee to command the strike and issued General Order No. 1, halting all railroad traffic other than passenger and mail trains. The mayor of East St. Louis,
John Bowman, was appointed arbitrator of the committee. He helped the committee select special police to guard the property of the railroads from damage. The strike and the new
de facto workers' government, while given encouragement by the largely
German-American Workingman's Party and the
Knights of Labor (two key players in the organization of the Missouri general strike), was run by no organized labor group.
The strike reached the business sector by closing packing houses surrounding the
National Stockyards. At one plant, workers allowed processing of 125 cattle in return for 500 cans of beef for the workers. The strike continued to gain momentum, with different regions and workers asking to join in. Though the East St. Louis strike continued in an orderly fashion, across the river there were isolated incidents of violence.
Harry Eastman, the East St. Louis workers' representative, addressed the mass of employees: "Go home to your different wards and organize your different unions, but don't keep coming up here in great bodies and stirring up excitement. Ask the Mayor, as we did, to close up all the saloons... keep sober and orderly, and when you're organized, apply to the United Workingmen for orders. Don't plunder ... don't interfere with the railroads here ... let us attend to that".
On July 28 the strike was peacefully ended when US troops took over the Relay Depot, the Commune's command center.
The East St. Louis Riots of 1917
East St. Louis in
1917 had a strong industrial economy boosted by
World War I. WWI took many of the workers, and the war prevented immigration from Europe. Many blacks were recruited to work at the
Aluminum Ore Company and the
American Steel Company and they were available because the US Army rejected many early black volunteers. However, resentment on both sides and the arrival of new workers created fears for job security and raised tensions. At a white labor meeting on
May 28, men passed around rumors of black men and white women fraternizing. Three thousand white men left the meeting for the downtown, where they beat up random blacks. They destroyed buildings and attacked people, but no one was killed. The governor called in
National Guard to prevent further rioting, but rumors continued to circulate about an organized retaliation from the blacks.
On
July 1,
1917, a black man attacked a white man. Whites drove by shooting in retaliation. When police came to investigate, the black attacker proceeded to fire on the police and wounded at least one. The next morning, thousands of white spectators saw the bloodstained police car as a call to march into the black section of town. The rioters burned entire sections of the city and shot blacks as they escaped the flames. Claiming that "Southern niggers deserve a genuine lynching,"
1 they hung several blacks.
National Guardsmen were called in, but several accounts reported that they joined in the rioting rather than trying to stop it. The mob included "ten or fifteen white women, [who] chased a negro woman at the Relay Depot in broad daylight. The girls were brandishing clubs and calling upon the men to kill the woman."
2 The woman was a known prostitute frequented by white men. Eyewitness accounts tell of mass graves — ditches and creeks filled with the bodies of blacks killed during the riot and covered over near the old National City Stockyards.
Modern
East St. Louis was named an
All-America City in 1959, having retained a modicum of prosperity through the decade as its population reached a peak of 82,295 residents.
As a number of local factories began to close and jobs declined, financial conditions deteriorated. Elected in 1951, Mayor Alvin Fields resorted to ill-judged funding procedures to try to buy the city out of its financial morass. The scheme increased the city's bonded indebtedness and the property tax rate. More businesses closed as whites left the area. Crime increased as a result of young
African Americans' joining gangs.
Street gangs such as the War Lords, Black Egyptians, 29th Street Stompers and Hustlers appeared in some neighborhoods. Like other failing cities in the 1960s, East St. Louis suffered riots in the latter part of the decade. In September of 1967, rioting occurred in the city's South End. Also, in the summer of 1968, a still-unsolved series of snipings occurred. These events contributed to residential mistrust and adversely affected the downtown retail base and the city's income.
Urban sprawl and the construction of freeways, contributed to East St. Louis' decline as well. The freeways cut through existing neighborhoods and broke them up. The freeways also made it easier for residents to commute back and forth from suburban homes. Desperation led to East St. Louis adopting a number of new programs in an attempt to reverse decline — the Model Cities program, the Concentrated Employment Program and Operation Breakthrough. The programs did little to prevent decline. The noted architect
Buckminster Fuller suggested putting the entire city under a geodesic dome.
In 1971, James Williams was elected as the city's first black mayor, but he was unable to stop the city's skid. By the election of Carl Officer as mayor (the youngest in the country at that time at age 25) in 1979, many said the city had nowhere to go but up, yet things grew even worse. As
white flight continued and middle class African Americans also left the city, sewers failed and garbage pickup ceased because the city couldn't pay the haulers. Police cars often didn't work, and neither did their radios. The East St. Louis Fire Department went on strike in the 1970s.
In 19xx the state imposed a financial advisory board to manage the city in exchange for a financial bailout.
Gordon Bush was elected mayor in 1991. State approval in 19xx of riverboat gambling and the coming of the
Casino Queen riverboat
casino provided the first new source of income for the city in nearly 30 years.
The past decade can be characterized as one of redevelopment and renewal for the city. In 2001 a new library was completed. A new city hall has been built. A variety of new retail developments, housing initiatives, and
St. Louis Metrolink light rail have sparked this renewal. However, the city is still one of the prime examples of drastic urban blight in the country. Sections of "
urban prairie" can be found where vacant buildings were torn down and whole blocks are now overgrown.
Famous natives or residents
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