Neighborhood Paper

As I was looking for information about the city, I learned things about the city I never knew and majority of it was bad but at one point E. St. Louis was a beautiful place to live. The first thing I learned was that E. St. Louis was called Illinois town, second there were several destructive tornadoes with the deadliest tornado of 1896, which killed about 255 people, injured over 1,000 people and estimated damages were $2.9 billion. Third, there was a time when the city had extensive industrial growth after the American Civil War. Another up and coming industry was meat packing and stockyards. There was a strike for a week by disgruntled workers who stopped freight traffic, it finally ended when the military was called in and a injunction was ordered for workers not to interfere with the railroad operations. Fourth, and most shocking to me were the two riots, the first riot on May 28, 1917 occurred because of a rumor about a Black man accidentally shooting a white man and as the rumored spread it got worse. From there mobs of White people started beating every Black person they seen, the second riot occurred July 1, 1917 this was the worst of the two. The mobs of White people would go from 10th and Broadway to the South End they would shoot and beat any Black person they saw, they burned down their homes and business. But even worse the Mayor and the National Guard perpetuated it and eventually the Mayor and the Chief of Police had to resign. From all the devastation the people there still were able to lift themselves up but as time passed the population has declined.

In 1970 the population in E. St. Louis was 70, 029 since then the population has declined by less than half by 2009. The 62207zip code (is the area I grew up in it) population was 9,841 with 5,388 females and 4,453 males. The overall population for E. St. Louis in 1990 was 40,944 and as the years pass the population has declined to 28,753 in 2009. The median age was 30 years old; 18 years and older 6,451 and 65 years old and older 1,274. The racial makeup of the city was black 9,550; white 183, American Indian 17; Hispanic 46 and two or more races 74.The median income was $ 19,776 while the median income for the U.S. was $41,994. The median family income was $23,059 in the U.S. $50, 046. There was 790 families living in poverty, individuals living below the poverty line was 3,514. Single family owner occupied homes were 1,378 the value was $38,300.

I grew up in the South End in E. St, Louis, IL, they call it that because its located on the south end of town by Sauget and Cahokia, IL. I loved growing up there because every one was like family and there was so much history between the older generation. My family had six generations living at once, my great great grandmother was born in 1896 she lived until she was 97years old but she probably would've live longer but she passed away in a fire at her daughters home in 1993. We lived in a house that