By Antonio Lopez and Andres Rios The original Jack Yates campus, located at 2610 Elgin, was the second Black high school in Houston. The school became a pillar of the community and a beacon of education in the Third Ward. The school has been home to notable alumni, from musicians and artists to activists and politicians. Photo courtesy of the Sloane Collection. A pillar […]
Pieces of History By Debbie Z. Harwell My parents were born in the early 1910s and had definite ideas about racial boundaries. Growing up in Houston I learned from an early age, “You don’t socialize with them.” Although I do not specifically remember being told to whom “them” referred, the meaning was clear. As I […]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s young people in Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Tennessee held sit-ins that caught the eye of Texas Southern University (TSU) students in Houston
By Emily Vinson The KUHT television program People are Taught to be Different had the noble aim of improving intercultural understanding, and showing viewers that people are, at their core, much the same. Against a simple stage setting, elegant dancers interpreted moments of joy and sorrow, anger, and love across cultures, as the narrator provided […]
Leland dedicated his political career to caring for his fellow man at home and abroad, demonstrating the importance of helping those in need. In the process, he left a legacy of humanitarianism that remains a model for us today.
With the recent addition of the Southeast line to the METRORail network, the Greater Third Ward is geared for revitalizing changes. The new line extends from downtown to the Palms Center, a former shopping center located at the intersection of Griggs Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“We’re not against jobs. But, wouldn’t you rather have a company that comes in here and you get hired, but it doesn’t have an impact on you? It doesn’t pollute you, it doesn’t cause cancer in the community, no birth defects, tumors. That’s what we want. We want a clean environment.” – Juan Parras
Tomiko Meeks chronicles Rev. Lawson’s work at TSU and the birth of a neighborhood church that led to the formation of Wheeler Avenue Baptist.
The upcoming issue of Houston History, “Visions of Faith,” explores aspects of the city’s diverse religious heritage and concludes the three-part series on Houston’s wards.
The historic Third Ward was originally an area east of Main Street, south of Congress Street and extending to the city limits. For the residents of the Third Ward, their identity with the ward went beyond the original intent of the nomenclature as a political division.
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