Vandals used white spray paint to deface the life-size bronze statue of legendary Gary mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher late Wednesday or early Thursday morning, officials said.
Doors on City Hall were also spray-painted.
Mayor Eddie Melton said police were investigating the incident as workers began cleaning up the statue and the exterior of City Hall, 401 Broadway. No arrests have been made. Melton said there are security cameras at City Hall.
A spokeswoman for Melton said the statue’s head had been spray painted and workers covered the statue.
“It’s a disgrace that anyone would come to disrespect City Hall, a place where we conduct business and serve the people of Gary, every day,” Melton said in a statement.
“It’s even more shameful that the vandals dishonored Mayor Richard G. Hatcher, a national historical figure who fought for the people of Gary and the marginalized and oppressed around the world,” he said.
Former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher speaks during a meeting of all living former mayors of Gary at Indiana University Northwest in this Jan. 9, 2019 file photo. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary, said Thursday her family wanted to wait to make a statement until more information was available.
Ragen Hatcher and her family led the campaign to erect the statue in 2019, along with then-mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson. The city’s Redevelopment Commission provided about $70,000 for the bronze statue by sculptor Gary Tillery, an artist with the Fine Arts Studio of Robtblatt & Amrany.
Tillery said he researched Hatcher’s career and many photographs before capturing Hatcher’s likeness in a suit and vest.
Richard Hatcher, his family and supporters attended the Oct. 9, 2019, unveiling of the statue that sits on a limestone base on the south side of City Hall. It faces a grassy park-like area where the 14-story Sheraton Hotel, built under Hatcher’s administration, once stood.
After the unveiling, Hatcher told a reporter: “I think it’s awesome that anyone would think I was worthy of the statue to begin with. It’s beautiful.”
Hatcher died two months later on Dec. 13 at age 86.
For weeks and months after the unveiling, residents stopped by to see the statue and take photographs.
A Democrat and former Gary city councilman, Hatcher rose to power in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights era. He became the country’s first Black mayor, along with Cleveland mayor Carl Stokes in 1968. Hatcher served five terms in office.
Under Hatcher, the city built the Genesis Convention Center, the Adam Benjamin Metro Center and Hudson-Campbell fitness center.
Hatcher also organized the first National Black Political Convention, held at West Side High School, in 1972.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
