https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/42d92e4525c9d714165d223a15b170ea.jpg 9fad549b7daa654bb09c99e2ac1bfb08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clifford E. Minton, Gary Description An account of the resource <p>Gary’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was located in a massive stone building that faced north on Fifth Avenue. Funded by Elbert Gary and designed by architect Joseph Silsbee in 1909, the impressive structure served as a sporting and recreation center, dining facility, library, and temporary dormitory until its closure in 1976.[1] Although the YMCA was intended to provide entertainment and support for the young men of Gary, a large portion of Gary’s male population was excluded from enjoying the facility. The Gary YMCA, like many YMCAs throughout the United States, enforced strict segregation during the first half of the nineteenth century, barring African American men from membership. It was not until the 1960s that the Gary Urban League won the right to integrate Gary’s branch of the YMCA.[2]</p> <p>African American communities throughout the country had long embraced the mission of the YMCA. Anthony Bowen, a freedman from Washington D.C., founded the first YMCA for African Americans in 1853. Although the YMCA movement was stalled by the social and financial hardship African Americans faced in many areas of the United States during nineteenth century, many cities had constructed African American YMCA branches by the early 1910s. These facilities served as meeting spots for African Americans to openly discuss politics, safe resting places for African American travelers, and learning centers where young African American men received education in business and management.[3]</p> <p>In the early 1900s, almost all business and entertainment establishments in Gary were owned by white proprietors. Gary’s large African American community, prohibited from entering these establishments, was deprived of recreation facilities. At the recommendation of clergyman John W. Lee, who conducted a survey of the social and economic conditions of Gary’s African American neighborhoods for the Calumet Church Federation, Gary’s First Baptist Church established an African American YMCA community center at 19th Avenue and Washington Street in 1919.[4] This new symbol of recreation and opportunity only operated for a few short years, however, as the facility was forced to close when the Great Depression hit Gary. After the shuttering of the African American YMCA, pressure to integrate Gary’s main YMCA building mounted.[5]</p> <p>The YMCA’s national policy of segregation ended in 1946 “when the National Council passed a resolution calling for local associations to ‘work steadfastly toward the goal of eliminating all racial discriminations,’ dissolved its Colored Work Department and abolished racial designations in all its publications.”[6] Local YMCAs responded to these institutional changes with varying degrees of compliance. At Gary’s branch of the YMCA, harsh segregation persisted for decades after the national policy of segregation ended. Clifford E. Minton, an active leader in Gary’s Civil Rights Movement and the long-time executive director of the Gary Urban League, spearheaded a campaign to integrate the facility.[7] Under Mayor George Chacharis, Minton successfully integrated Gary’s YMCA in the early 1960s.[8]</p> <p>Unfortunately, Clifford Minton’s YMCA victory was short-lived, as the Gary YMCA closed only a few years after its integration. Facing competition from for-profit recreational centers, Gary’s YMCA was unable to stay afloat during the recession of the mid-1970s and shut down operations in 1976.[9] While the old YMCA building was demolished after the closure of the facility, postcards bearing its striking image can be viewed on the Digital Commonwealth website today.[10] The integration of Gary’s YMCA was only one of Clifford Minton’s many accomplishments as a Civil Rights leader and executive director of the Gary Urban League.</p> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived [1] <span>“Y.M.C.A. Building for Gary Indiana,” Searching for Silsbee, last modified November 6, 2010, http://jlsilsbee.blogspot.com/2010/11/y-m-c-building-for-gary-indiana.html. Melissa G. Burlock, “The Battle Over a Black YMCA and its Inner-City Community: The Fall Creek Parkway YMCA as a Lens on Indianapolis’ Urban Revitalization and School Desegregation 1959-2003” (M.A. diss., Indiana University, 2014), 72.<br />[2] Calumet Regional Archives, “Clifford E. Minton Papers,” Indiana University Northwest, accessed May 19, 2020, https://cra.sitehost.iu.edu/cra_records/cra160.shtml. Dharathula H. Millender, Gary’s Central Business Community, (Charleston: Acadia Publishing, 2003), 102.<br />[3] “A Brief History of the YMCA and African American Communities,” University of Minnesota Libraries, accessed May 19, 2020, https://www.lib.umn.edu/ymca/guide-afam-history.<br />[4] James B. Lane, City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 70. Neil Betten and Raymond A. Mohl, “The Evolution of Racism in an Industrial City, 1906-1940: A Case Study of Gary, Indiana,” The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1974): 59, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717140.<br />[5] Indiana History Blog, “City Church: Spirituality and Segregation in Gary,” Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library, accessed May 19, 2020, https://blog.history.in.gov/city-church-spirituality-and-segregation-in-gary/<br />[6] “A Brief History.”<br />[7] Calumet Regional Archives, “Clifford E. Minton Papers.”<br />[8] Millender, Gary’s Central Business Community.<br />[9] Burlock, “The Battle Over a Black YMCA.”<br />[10] “YMCA Gary, Indiana, ‘the steel city’” Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts Collection Online, accessed May 19, 2020, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:6w929s87c.</span> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Student Author: Natalie Bradshaw Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource PHOTO & VIDEO: Y.M.C.A., Gary, Indiana, "The Steel City", attributed to Springfield College Archives and Special Collections, Public domain, via Picryl. https://picryl.com/media/ymca-gary-indiana-the-steel-city-9ec6fb 1900-1940s 1950s-present Gary Integration Lake County Organization Segregation YMCA