Miller Beach: Gary's Island of Integration

At Gary's far east end, wedged between the Indiana Dunes National Park and Lake Michigan, sits Miller Beach, a neighborhood that went its own way when the rest of Gary was fracturing. For decades Miller Beach was an exclusively white resort community, one of those lakefront enclaves that posted its exclusivity through custom and covenant. Beginning in the nineteen sixties and seventies, African American families moved in and, instead of the white flight that gutted other Gary neighborhoods, integration took hold.

Observers described Miller Beach as an island of racial and socioeconomic diversity in a deeply polarized region. An arts district grew along Lake Street in recent years, drawing galleries, a farmers market, and musicians. Miles of dunes and beach remain among the most accessible wild lakefront in the Chicago metro area.