Editing East Chicago, Indiana (section)

=== World War I to the present ===
During the 1910s, several thousand Mexicans immigrated to East Chicago to work in the mills during the labor shortage of 1917–1918 due to U.S. participation in World War I,<ref name="East Chicago, IN"/> and also acted as strike breakers during labor unrest in 1919. Most were single men who eventually hoped to return to Mexico, but many stayed on and eventually were joined by their families. The small Mexican community was targeted for voluntary and forced repatriation during the 1930s and 1950s (1,800 were deported in 1932 alone), but those who remained eventually paved the way for later Latino immigration after 1965.

Black Americans also began to arrive in the 1910s and 1920s as part of the first wave of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], and this continued from the 1940s to 1960s. According to a city demographic survey in 1959, there were 1,000 Mexican families and 10,000 African American families, along with 3,000 Polish families. There were also a large number of families that identified as Puerto Rican, Romanian, Serbian, Italian, Lithuanian, and Croatian. Over 70 nationalities were represented, with over 59 congregations of the Protestants, Orthodox, Catholic Churches, as well as Jewish synagogues.

Like neighboring [[Gary, Indiana]], East Chicago quickly developed a reputation as a rough industrial city, plagued by extreme pollution, ethnic and racial tensions, organized crime, illegal gambling and clubs, political corruption, prostitution, and other vices. The city continued to rapidly grow in the 1910s and 1920s, and the population peaked in 1960 at 57,669. However, East Chicago's population began to decline in the 1960s as suburbanization, white flight, affordability of automobiles, and the construction of highways meant that workers no longer had to live in the city, but could commute from less-polluted suburbs.

It was the [[Steel crisis]] of the 1974-1986 period that completely devastated East Chicago, as it did other industrial cities like Gary, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and the south side of Chicago. East Chicago's population plunged to 47,000 in 1970, 34,000 by 1990, and 29,000 by 2010. Employment at Inland Steel peaked at 25,000 in 1969, and successive layoffs over the next 30 years were devastating to the community; by 1998, only 9,000 were employed at Inland Steel.<ref>{{cite web |title=East Chicago residents can be forgiven for cheering the... |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-09-28/news/9901070123_1_ltv-steel-inland-steel-prairie-park |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224231555/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-09-28/news/9901070123_1_ltv-steel-inland-steel-prairie-park |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 24, 2015 |website=Chicago Tribune |publisher=Chicago Tribune |access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref> Inland Steel was acquired by Ispat International in 1998.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ispat completes Inland Steel deal |url=https://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/ispat-completes-inland-steel-deal/article_3e54c391-44ec-5cb7-b3ca-880b3e8ae1fc.html |newspaper=Northwest Indiana Times |date=Jul 18, 1998 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> Both the Indiana Harbor mill and Youngstown Steel mill were absorbed and merged by [[ArcelorMittal]] in 2004<ref>{{cite web |title=Indiana Harbor Works Steel Plant, Indiana |work=Land Use Database |publisher=Center for Land Use Interpretation |url=http://clui.org/ludb/site/indiana-harbor-works-steel-plant |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> and subsequently sold to [[Cleveland-Cliffs]] in 2020.<ref>{{Cite press release | url=http://www.clevelandcliffs.com/English/news-center/news-releases/news-releases-details/2020/Cleveland-Cliffs-Inc.-Completes-Acquisition-of-ArcelorMittal-USA/default.aspx | title=Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Completes Acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA | publisher=Cleveland-Cliffs | date=December 9, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/12/cleveland-cliffs-completes-14-billion-arcelormittal-usa-acquisition.html | title=Cleveland-Cliffs completes $1.4 billion ArcelorMittal USA acquisition | first=Ben | last=Miller | work=[[The Plain Dealer]] | date=December 9, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2020/12/09/cleveland-cliffs-completes-acquisition-arcelormittal-usa-operations/3865929001/ | title=Cleveland-Cliffs completes purchase of ArcelorMittal USA operations | first=Lou | last=Whitmire | work=[[Mansfield News Journal]] | date=December 9, 2020}}</ref>

The [[Indiana Harbor Public Library]] and [[Marktown|Marktown Historic District]] are listed in the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

In 2009, parts of East Chicago were discovered to have toxic [[lead poisoning|lead]] and [[arsenic poisoning|arsenic contamination]], designated the USS Lead [[Superfund]] Site. The site is divided into three zones, with public housing and residential properties.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.epa.gov/uss-lead-superfund-site|title=USS Lead Superfund Site|author=|website=Epa.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-02-23}}</ref> Residents' decades-long concerns about lead contamination were confirmed in 2016 via EPA testing, especially affecting over 270 families in the West Calumet Housing Complex.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.epa.gov/uss-lead-superfund-site/west-calumet-housing-complex-east-chicago-ind|title=West Calumet Housing Complex – East Chicago, Ind.|website=Epa.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url= http://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/east-chicago-residents-scramble-for-info-after-lead-found-in-soil|title=East Chicago Residents Scramble For Info After Lead Found In Soil|last=Janzen|first=Nick|date=2016-09-02|newspaper=WFYI Public Media|access-date=2017-02-23|language=en-us}}</ref> As governor of Indiana, [[Mike Pence]] declined to declare the Superfund site a state emergency;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/east-chicago-lead-mike-pence_us_58a4b76fe4b07602ad5128c9|title=Mike Pence Ignored A Lead Contamination Crisis In His Backyard|last=Erbentraut|first=Joseph|date=2017-02-16| work= The Huffington Post|access-date=2017-02-23}}</ref> his successor Governor [[Eric Holcomb]] has issued Executive Order 17-13, declaring a disaster emergency in East Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.in.gov/gov/2384.htm|title=Governor Holcomb: Executive Orders|website=www.in.gov|language=en-US| access-date= 2017-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://patch.com/illinois/chicago/east-chicago-lead-crisis-declared-emergency-indiana-governor| title= East Chicago Lead Crisis Declared Emergency by Indiana Governor|date=2017-02-10|newspaper= Patch| location= Chicago| access-date= 2017-02-23|language=en-US}}</ref>