1920

1920 - Thanks to Aluminum Ore (employing 2,500 men), the city is the world's largest aluminum processing center. It also leads the U. S. in production of roofing material, baking powder, and paint pigments. it is the third largest primary grain market and second only to Chicago as a hog market and rail center. It has the cheapest coal in the world and its population stands at over 75,000.

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St. Augustine Parish, at 14th and Broadway, is organized to serve the needs of Negro Catholics. They had a record enrollment of 207 students in 1948, but enrollment began to decline steadily and the school was closed in 1953. The church closed its doors in 1960.

City Cemetery at 33rd and State is condemned and bodies are moved to St. Clair Memorial Park at Routes 50 and 161. Clark Junior High will be built on this site.

Nineteenth Amendment becomes law, giving women the right to vote. Mrs. Carrie Alexander Bahrenburg led this movement in East St. Louis.

Quinten Spivey, born in McLeansboro, Ill., comes to East St. Louis. He earns a law degree and is later elected as a judge. During one fourteen year period, he is the only Republican office holder in St. Clair County.

The Volstead Act goes into effect making it illegal for anyone to manufacture, sell, purchase, drink, or possess alcoholic beverages. Prohibition has a significant impact on East St. Louis as well as the nation as a whole. "Black Leg" mobsters saw opportunities for enormous profits and opened illegal "speakeasies." The Shelton brothers were dominant in East St. Louis and brought in illegal slot machines and prostitutes to their establishments. One of the Shelton Gang, Jardown "Blackie" Armes, was a good automobile mechanic and put his talents to work modifying cars to outrun Prohibition agents. This was done by others all over the South with the same goals in mind. From these efforts at modifying car engines came stock car racing as we know it today. Prohibition was also largely responsible for the growth and development of organized crime and the Mafia empire as it now exists. Prohibition corrupted police and city officials in East St Louis because it gave them a chance to supplement their meager salaries with bribes and kickbacks in return for looking the other way.

Mrs. Paul Hodson organizes the first chapter for Girl Scouts in the city. Other early leaders include Mrs. Floyd Stephenson, and Mrs. R. H. Kenagy. In 1935, the WPA builds camp Ouatoga, a recreation site for Girl Scouts at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton. In 1953, the Park Board leases a 23 acre site on Signal Hill known as Bluff Park. The camp is called Minnie Wa Wa.

Virginia Clara is born in St. Louis. A great great granddaughter of Captain James Piggott, she performs at the Muny Opera and then goes to Hollywood where she will become a film star under the stage name Virginia Mayo. She marries actor Michael O'Shea in 1947 and in 1996 gets a star on the St. Louis "Walk of Fame" on Delmar near the Tivoli Theater in the Central West End.

The Jaycees are organized in East St. Louis with Sherman Morgan as president. Founded several years earlier in St. Louis, the East St. Louis chapter is the second oldest in the nation. It was the Jaycees who started the School Boy Patrol program.

Jacob Dlugon, owner of National Soda Water Bottling Co., moves the business to 800 Division Ave. where he lived. It will stay at this location until 1961 when National Bottling moves to 7903 State.

A Student Council is organized for the first time at East Side. Student police are responsible for directing traffic in the hallways and the council helps select Lyceum programs during the school year. Mark Chambers and Willard Max were presidents in 1933.

According to a government report, annual income per household is only about 24% of the overall Illinois average. These low wages prevent a strong middle class from developing in the city.