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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KitanaVorr" data-source="post: 577643" data-attributes="member: 9167">The Fifth Ward BackgroundKnown by more names than can be remembered, the Fifth Ward has always held a fascinating mystic about it.  Once described by Texas Monthly magazine as the "toughest, proudest, baddest ghetto in Texas" it hasn't lost that reputation despite many decades of urban renewal projects.  It is the poorest, lowest income neighborhood in the south's largest city.The Fifth Ward is located east of downtown and bounded by the Buffalo Bayou on the south side, Lockwood Drive on the east, Liberty Road on the north and Jenson on the west.It has a rich history with the African-American population home to the first Black Arts center.  But each of ot nicknames describes its multi-faceted persona."The Bloody Fifth" for its extremely high murder rate."The Nickel" for its important economic position in the fiftites."French town" for the African-Americans of French and Spanish descent (Creole) organized a community 4 block section.  Many jazz and blues artists came from this section of town.The most famous high school in the Fifth Ward is the Phillis Wheatley High School created in 1927.  Many important African-American figures gradated from there including the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, boxer George Foreman, and Smith College president Ruth Simmons.When the integration laws came into affect in the 1960's, many residents left the Fifth Ward for better opportunites.  Before the enconomic crash of Enron, the Fifth Ward was having a rivial of its roots and many of its past residents were returning...but now the times have changed and gotten much tougher than before.</blockquote>

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