Hatcher, Richard G. (Richard Gordon), 1933-2019

Richard Gordon Hatcher (July 10, 1933 – December 13, 2019) was an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the first African-American mayor of Gary, Indiana from 1968 to 1988. At the time of his first election on November 7, 1967, he and Carl Stokes were the first African-Americans to be elected mayors of a U.S. city with more than 100,000 people. Hatcher also served as Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the early 1980s.

Born in Michigan City, Indiana, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business and government from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Laws with honors in criminal law in 1956 and a Juris Doctor from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1959. After moving to Gary, Indiana, Hatcher began practicing law in East Chicago, Indiana. In 1961, he began serving as a deputy prosecutor for Lake County, Indiana, until he was elected to Gary's City Council in 1963. He was the first and only freshman elected president of the City Council in Gary's history.

In 1967, Hatcher launched a primary challenge against incumbent mayor Martin Katz in the Democratic primary election, and won by just 2300 votes. In an intensely fought election marked by corruption, racial violence, voter purges and intimidation, and blatant vote rigging, Hatcher was able to cobble together a coalition of black voters and liberal white voters to overcome the odds and win the November election by just 2200 votes. During his tenure as mayor, he became internationally known as a fervent and prolific civil rights spokesman. Hatcher was known for developing innovative approaches to urban problems and for being a national and international spokesman for civil rights, minorities, the poor and America's cities. He often delivered speeches alongside Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and other historic proponents of the civil rights movement. On April 5, 1968, he addressed President Lyndon B. Johnson, along with a collection of politicians and civil rights leaders, on the topic of the King assassination the night before and pending civil unrest. In the 1984 U.S. presidential election, Mayor Hatcher served as the chairman for Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaign. He served as the Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1981 to 1985.

In 1988, Hatcher started his own consulting firm, R. Gordon Hatcher & Associates. From 1988 to 1989, he worked as an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He also began teaching political science at Roosevelt University in 1989 and later became a senior research professor at Valparaiso University, in 1991. In the summer of 1996, Hatcher taught a law course at Cambridge University in England. In 1991, he sought to retake his former position as mayor, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Thomas Barnes in the Democratic primary. He later served as an adjunct professor at Indiana University Northwest. He died at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago.