Once a bustling industrial center, like many cities in the Rust Belt, East St. Louis was severely affected by the loss of jobs due to the flight of the population to the suburbs during the riots of the late 1960s.

The center of this culture was the urban complex of Cahokia, located to the south of present-day East St. Louis within Collinsville, Illinois.

In that year Piggott began operating a ferry service across the Mississippi River, connecting Illinoistown with St. Louis, which had been founded by ethnic French families.

This was due to railroad and other manufacturing expansion, land speculation, and general business optimism caused by large profits from inflation.

The economic recession began in the East and steadily moved West, severely crippling the railroads, the main system of transportation.

The federal government intervened, and on July 28 US troops took over the Relay Depot, the Commune's command center, and the strike ended peacefully.

Such economic competition raised tensions between the groups in a period when the number of blacks in East St. Louis had increased dramatically due to the first Great Migration, when African Americans left poor rural areas of the South to escape Jim Crow oppression and seek jobs in the industrial cities of the North and the Midwest.

[12] This was also the period of resentment on both sides and the arrival of new workers created fears for job security at a time of union organizing and labor unrest, and raised social tensions.

The Illinois governor called in National Guard to prevent further rioting, but rumors circulated that blacks were planning an organized retaliation and tensions remained high.

The next morning, thousands of whites mobbed the black sections of the city, indiscriminately beating, shooting and killing men, women and children.

The governor called in National Guard troops to try to control the situation; they arrived July 3, but several accounts reported that they joined in the rioting.

[8] In New York City on July 28, 10,000 black people marched down Fifth Avenue in a Silent Parade, carrying signs and protesting the East St. Louis riots.

Elected in 1951, Mayor Alvin Fields tried funding measures that resulted in raising the city's bonded indebtedness and the property tax rate.

The freeways made it easier for residents to commute back and forth from suburban homes, so the wealthier people moved out to newer housing.

In 1975, William E. Mason was elected mayor; his term marked a return to patronage politics and the city sank deeper into debt and reliance on federal funding.

Lacking sufficient tax revenues, the city cut back on maintenance, sewers failed, and garbage pickup ceased.

Several major industries operating in the area had gained separate incorporation as jurisdictions for the land where their plants are sited.

At the same time, the city's tax base is too poor for it to maintain its infrastructure, including the sanitary sewers, many of which have broken and overflowed in residential neighborhoods and schools.

In addition to agricultural uses, a number of truck stops, strip clubs, and semi-rural businesses surround blighted areas in the city.

All of these residents make less than $9,000 per year, meaning the Authority is highly dependent upon state and federal funding to continue operating its aging housing stock.

[22] In 2010, the East St. Louis community gardening movement began to develop plots for "urban farming", as has been done in North St.

[citation needed] In the early 1990s, archeological surveys and excavations prior to construction of Interstate 55/70 revealed evidence of important prehistoric structures in the East St. Louis area.

The state and University of Illinois are trying to develop coordinated projects with East St. Louis and businesses to use the mounds and artifacts as attractions for heritage tourism.

It reached its peak in this region about AD 1100–1200 at the nearby major center of Cahokia, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site within the present-day boundaries of Collinsville.

In 2012, archeological work prior to construction of the Stan Musial Bridge across the Mississippi discovered artifacts and evidence of a formerly unidentified 900-year-old suburb of Cahokia in present-day East St. Louis.

Discovery of the site led scholars to increase their estimates of the total population of the Mississippians at Cahokia and in the area, now thought to have been about 20,000.

Several social services organizations operate in East St. Louis, including Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, Catholic Urban Programs, Christian Activity Center, and The Delta Childcare Center of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, East St. Louis Alumnae Chapter, and The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation.

[34][35] The East St. Louis Fire Department has struggled to provide protection and service while having to undergo repeated budget cuts due to city problems.

There were previously four Catholic elementary schools: St. Joseph, St. Martin of Tours, St. Patrick, St. Philip, Holy Angels and St. Adalbert.

[45] In 2016, NeighborhoodScout released rankings indicating that East St. Louis had the highest murder rate of any city in the United States.