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Fifth WardThe Fifth Ward is the area of Houston, Texas immediately east of downtown. After the U.S. Civil War, newly freed slaves (freemen) began settling in the sparsely settled area. In 1866, it became the Fifth Ward and a alderman from the ward was elected to Houston's City Council. By the mid-1880s, it was virtually all black, home to working class people who made their livings in Houston's eastside ship channel and industrial areas or as domestics for wealthy Houstonians. Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, founded in 1865 by a former slave, is the oldest church in the ward. Five other churches are over a hundred years old. Once a strong neighborhood with a thriving business district, it became a violent ghetto with poor schools, widespread poverty, and drug addiction. The ward lost population as citizens left seeking better lives. But is rebounding to be a strong neighorhood once again. The neighborhood produced members of Congress Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, singers like Arnett Cobb, Milton Larkin, Illinois Jacquet, and The Geto Boys, and athletes like George Foreman.
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