Striking steelworkers march

Image of striking steelworkers near Inland Steel in Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago, Indiana, circa late 1940s. The view is southwest looking away from Inland Steel on Michigan Ave near the entrance to Plant 2. Later, a bridge over the railroad track would be built on this spot. The Calumet region consisted of Northwest Indiana as well as Southeast Chicago, and the steel mills extended across this entire region. Many Southeast Chicago residents had social connections, worked, or shopped across the Indiana state line, which was far closer to them than downtown Chicago. The Calumet region in its entirety was included within District 31, the largest district in the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) union, and union activities crossed the state line. For example, in 1937, the Inland Steel local union sent a large number of their own strikers out in support of Republic Steel workers in Southeast Chicago during the Little Steel Strike, when police and company hostility led to the Memorial Day Massacre. Four of the ten workers who were killed that Memorial Day were sympathy strikers from Indiana Harbor.