On March 7,1949 roughly 2,000 women gathered at Seaman Hall to form the Women's Citizens Committee, or the WCC. Having felt that Mary Cheever's death was the last straw in their tolerance of crime and corruption in Gary, the women left Seaman Hall and marched towards City Hall, where a council meeting was taking place.

The women demanded that Gary was to be cleaned up. The mayor, Eugene H. Seartz, was given a time limit of two weeks to rid Gary of its vice. As spokesman for the WCC, Ida K. Saks declared, "It's up to you to do something and do it quickly."1 If the council didn't act, the WCC would call upon the governor.

By March 14, 1949 the WCC had established an executive committee. It consisted of 21 members, plus a board of delegates representing 300 women's groups.

On March 25, a delegation of women went to see governor Henry F. Schricker to discuss Gary's problems.

"The WCC also sponsored a crime commission modeled after a private Chicago organization."2

The WCC launched a program called "Operation Shoe Leather" in July of 1949. Hundreds of volunteers picketed brothels, salons, and gambling houses.

By 1950, the WCC was more concerned with political action to achieve their goals. WCC members began an effot to oust Bejamin Schwartz, the incumbent for count prosecutor. The Crime Commission bugged the office of Deputy Prosecutor Blaz A. Lucas. Publishing "The Microphone Speaks", the WCC and Crime Commission made public the conversations between Lucas and Jack Doyle, and Lucas and other racketeers.

The WCC campaigned for David Stanton effortlessly. He was victorious, but soon encountered problems with Lake Criminal Court Judge William J. Murrary.

In 1951, the WCC was concerned with city election. WCC officer Hylda Burton ran in the primaries for the Democratic ticket as mayor. She came in third. Peter Mandich (a Democrat) won, and surprised reformers by naming James Traeger as police chief. However, Traeger was fired. The WCC was adamantly opposed to the administration since Mandich claimed they were no threat.

By 1952, Metro Holovachka was victorious over Stanton. Holovachka was not interested in dealing with the WCC.

Because of negative feedback, the WCC energies began to slow down. However, "On January 19, 1954, the WCC forced the city council to hold hearings after a nine-year-old child was molested near Froebel School."3

By 1955, headlines in newspapers such as the July 23, 1955 issue of The Chicago Daily News told of conditions in Gary. "Dice, Cards, Girls---Reform Getting Nowhere in Gary". Despite strong setbacks, the WCC continued to strive. Said Mrs. Alma Mackall, chairman of the WCC, in the "Dice, Cards, Girls..." article in The Chicago Daily News, "Well, it may be discouraging-but we're not going to give up."

By 1959, the WCC was involved in investigating corruption in Lake County with the Crime Commission. As a June 12, 1959 Gary Post-Tribune article stated: "The first organized local reaction to the just concluded rackets committee hearings will be followed at 8 p.m. Monday by a mass meeting sponsored by the Gary Crime Commission and Women's Citizens Committee." The meeting was scheduled to ask public officials about their future plans to enforce the law in Lake County.

However diligent the WCC's effort was in the final years of its existence, the women were just plain tired. As Beryl Brownell said in a June 21, 1989 interview, the group was exhausted, and feeling very defeated. When the Crime Commission joined forces with the WCC, according to Miss Brownell, it was the beginning of the end for the WCC. The men of the Crime Commission began a secret chase to beat organized crime at their own game. A plan, according to Miss Brownell, that helped to hurt the reformers' effort in the end.

Footnotes 1. Newsweek, "Cities: Gary Cleanup", May 21, 1949, p.23-24 2. Lane, James B. "City of the Century", Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978, p. 247. 3. Ibid, p. 250.