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99-518: Jackson Ward , previously known as Central Wards , is a historically African-American district in Richmond, Virginia , with a long tradition of African-American businesses . It is located less than a mile from the Virginia State Capitol , sitting to the west of Court End and north of Broad Street . It was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 1978. "Jackson Ward" was originally

198-505: A National Historic Site in 1978 and opened as a museum in 1985. Giles Beecher Jackson was the first African American to practice law before the Supreme Court of Virginia , he was active in the neighborhood and has a "Giles B. Jackson Day" on April 17 (starting in 2007) and a historic landmark in his honor at the intersection of North 2nd Street and East Clay Street. As a center for both black commerce and entertainment , Jackson Ward

297-574: A 14-year-old boy from Chicago. Spending the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi , Till was killed for allegedly having wolf-whistled at a White woman. Till had been badly beaten, one of his eyes was gouged out, and he was shot in the head. The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the Black community throughout the US. Vann R. Newkirk wrote "the trial of his killers became

396-488: A 2800-person multigenerational neighborhood known as Fulton Bottom, before new federal requirements for paying those displaced led to that project becoming stalled until 2011. The Fulton Bottom revitalization plan had reserved most of the 370 acres for industrial sites, and industrial boulevard and flood control. Toward the end of the 20th century, Richmond worked to revitalized Jackson Ward, including its pre-existing housing stock. The National Park Service assisted by restoring

495-466: A White American mother and a Kenyan father— defeated Republican Senator John McCain to become the first African American to be elected president. At least 95 percent of African American voters voted for Obama. He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of Asians , and Hispanics , picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column. Obama lost

594-542: A crucial role in producing the country's most valuable product and export: cotton . Enslaved people were instrumental in the construction of several prominent structures such as, the United States Capitol , the White House and other Washington, D.C.-based buildings. ) Similar building projects existed in the slave states . By 1815, the domestic slave trade had become a significant and major economic activity in

693-546: A downtown bypass (and which would effectively enclose the five public housing projects in a box) received no support. Also, the city council secured identification of the Maggie Walker House as a national landmark, and preservation of the Leigh Street corridor. Nonetheless, the last government-sponsored neighborhood revitalization project (begun in 1970 and with much of the bulldozing completed by 1973) effectively destroyed

792-643: A federal crime to aid or assist those who had fled slavery or to interfere with their capture. By that time, slavery, which almost exclusively targeted Black people, had become the most critical and contentious political issue in the Antebellum United States , repeatedly sparking crises and conflicts. Among these were the Missouri Compromise , the Compromise of 1850 , the infamous Dred Scott decision , and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry . Prior to

891-535: A group formed to promote relations between the countries. After riots against Blacks in Cincinnati , its Black community sponsored founding of the Wilberforce Colony , an initially successful settlement of African American immigrants to Canada. The colony was one of the first such independent political entities. It lasted for a number of decades and provided a destination for about 200 Black families emigrating from

990-642: A number of locations in the United States. In 1863, during the American Civil War , President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation . The proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free. Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865. Slavery in a few border states continued until

1089-499: A pageant illuminating the tyranny of White supremacy ". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-White jury . One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama—indeed, Parks told Emmett's mother Mamie Till that "the photograph of Emmett's disfigured face in the casket was set in her mind when she refused to give up her seat on

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1188-727: A process known as White flight . Despite discrimination, drawing cards for leaving the hopelessness in the South were the growth of African American institutions and communities in Northern cities. Institutions included Black oriented organizations (e.g., Urban League , NAACP ), churches, businesses, and newspapers, as well as successes in the development in African American intellectual culture, music, and popular culture (e.g., Harlem Renaissance , Chicago Black Renaissance ). The Cotton Club in Harlem

1287-511: A significant influence on worldwide culture, making numerous contributions to visual arts , literature , the English language, philosophy , politics, cuisine , sports , and music . The African-American contribution to popular music is so profound that most American music , including jazz , gospel , blues , rock and roll , funk , disco , house , techno , hip hop , R&B , trap , and soul , has its origins either partially or entirely in

1386-425: A small cash payment called "freedom dues". Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or European settlers . By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown , and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640,

1485-423: A year, compared with 41 percent in 1960. In 1965, 19 percent of Black Americans had incomes equal to the national median, a proportion that rose to 27 percent by 1967. In 1960, the median level of education for Blacks had been 10.8 years, and by the late 1960s, the figure rose to 12.2 years, half a year behind the median for Whites. Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during

1584-534: Is located at 1305 N 5th St. African-American African Americans , also known as Black Americans , formerly also called Afro-Americans , are an American racial or ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa . African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the US after White Americans . The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in

1683-727: Is now the continental United States. The first recorded Africans in English America (including most of the future United States) were "20 and odd negroes" who arrived in Jamestown , Virginia via Cape Comfort in August 1619 as indentured servants . As many Virginian settlers began to die from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. An indentured servant (who could be White or Black) would work for several years (usually four to seven) without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland

1782-522: The Richmond Planet , an African American newspaper. Maggie L. Walker was the first woman to charter and serve as president of an American bank, all the more remarkable an accomplishment as she was both African-American and was mobility-impaired. The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site at her former Jackson Ward home is operated by the National Park Service and the house was designated

1881-695: The American Revolution . After the United States was founded in 1783, most Black people continued to be enslaved , primarily concentrated in the American South , with four million enslaved people only liberated during and at the end of the Civil War in 1865. During Reconstruction , they gained citizenship and adult-males the right to vote ; however, due to the widespread policy and ideology of White supremacy , they were largely treated as second-class citizens and found themselves soon disenfranchised in

1980-673: The Civil War , eight serving presidents had owned slaves, a practice that was legally protected under the US Constitution. By 1860, the number of enslaved Black people in the US had grown to between 3.5 to 4.4 million, largely as a result of the Atlantic slave trade . In addition, 488,000–500,000 Black people lived free (with legislated limits) across the country. With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to Henry Clay . In response to these conditions, some free Black people chose to leave

2079-717: The Great Awakening . By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the American colonies , which made them the second largest ethnic group after English Americans . During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious American colonists secure their independence by defeating the British in the American Revolutionary War . Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in

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2178-589: The Irish and Germans . According to the 2010 census , nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported non-Hispanic Black immigrants from the Caribbean , mostly from Jamaica and Haiti, represented 0.9% of the US population, at 2.6 million. Self-reported Black immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa also represented 0.9%, at about 2.8 million. Additionally, self-identified Black Hispanics represented 0.4% of

2277-1038: The New York City metropolitan area still has the largest African American metropolitan population in the United States and the only to have over 3 million African Americans. Among cities of 100,000 or more , South Fulton, Georgia had the highest percentage of Black residents of any large US city in 2020, with 93%. Other large cities with African American majorities include Jackson, Mississippi (80%), Detroit, Michigan (80%), Birmingham, Alabama (70%), Miami Gardens, Florida (67%), Memphis, Tennessee (63%), Montgomery, Alabama (62%), Baltimore, Maryland (60%), Augusta, Georgia (59%), Shreveport, Louisiana (58%), New Orleans, Louisiana (57%), Macon, Georgia (56%), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (55%), Hampton, Virginia (53%), Newark, New Jersey (53%), Mobile, Alabama (53%), Cleveland, Ohio (52%), Brockton, Massachusetts (51%), and Savannah, Georgia (51%). Gilpin, Richmond, Virginia The community of Gilpin lies adjacent to

2376-722: The Richmond Coliseum , the Greater Richmond Convention Center and a smaller number of housing units controlled by the Richmond Housing Authority. The Richmond Housing Authority, initially controlled by the city's white business elite, first targeted the sub-neighborhood known as Apostle Town, adjacent to Maggie Walker's Penny Savings Bank. It built 297 units of public housing known as Gilpin Court to replace 200 houses. However, only 25 of 576 applicants for

2475-656: The Western states. The west does have a sizable Black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. According to the 2000 census, approximately 2.05% of African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin , many of whom may be of Brazilian , Puerto Rican , Dominican , Cuban , Haitian , or other Latin American descent. The only self-reported ancestral groups larger than African Americans are

2574-446: The colony of Georgia to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to Catholicism . King Charles II issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted conversion and baptism. Most went to the area around St. Augustine , but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-Black militia unit defending Spanish Florida as early as 1683. One of

2673-623: The 16th century, with Africans from West Africa and coastal Central Africa being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere . After arriving in the Americas , they were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations , particularly in the southern colonies . A few were able to achieve freedom through manumission or escape, and founded independent communities before and during

2772-429: The 1790s, Governor Francisco Luis Héctor, baron of Carondelet reinforced local fortifications and recruit even more free Black men for the militia. Carondelet doubled the number of free Black men who served, creating two more militia companies—one made up of Black members and the other of pardo (mixed race). Serving in the militia brought free Black men one step closer to equality with Whites, allowing them, for example,

2871-453: The 1850s the Italianate styles . A major part of the district's visual appeal and charm derived from the contrast between the two ornamental and austere characteristics of the two styles. St. Mary's German Catholic Church was built on Marshal Street to serve the growing German Catholic immigrant community that had moved into greater Richmond from about 1850 to through the 1880s. The center of

2970-629: The 1900 Hampton Negro Conference , Reverend Matthew Anderson said: "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South." Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants , redlining and racial steering ". While many Whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward African Americans, many other Whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions,

3069-681: The 1960 census. Meanwhile, the Richmond housing authority built Creighton Court (1952), Fairfield Court (1958) and Whitcomb Court (1958), all in Richmond's East End. In 1946 R. Stuart Royer and Associates, a consulting firm, proposed a turnpike that Richmond voters twice rejected in public referendums. However, the Virginia General Assembly (with no black members at the time) then created the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority in 1954, which four months later announced

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3168-536: The 20th and 21st centuries, immigration has played an increasingly significant role in the African-American community. As of 2022, 10% of Black Americans were immigrants, and 20% were either immigrants or the children of immigrants. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first, and so far only, African American to be elected president of the United States. Kamala Harris became the nation's first African-American vice president in 2020. African-American culture has had

3267-663: The African slave trade, Spanish rule introduced a new law called coartación , which allowed slaves to buy their freedom, and that of others. Although some did not have the money to do so, government measures on slavery enabled the existence of many free Blacks. This caused problems to the Spaniards with the French creoles (French who had settled in New France ) who had also populated Spanish Louisiana. The French creoles cited that measure as one of

3366-514: The African-American community. The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from several Central and West Africa ethnic groups. They had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids, or sold by other West Africans, or by half-European "merchant princes" to European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo in

3465-503: The American Revolution. They fought in the 1779 battle in which Spain captured Baton Rouge from the British. Gálvez also commanded them in campaigns against the British outposts in Mobile , Alabama , and Pensacola , Florida. He recruited slaves for the militia by pledging to free anyone who was seriously wounded and promised to secure a low price for coartación (buy their freedom and that of others) for those who received lesser wounds. During

3564-504: The Caribbean to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony (most likely located in the Winyah Bay area of present-day South Carolina ), founded by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526. The ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans . De Ayllón and many of

3663-474: The Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson , would later own one of the first Black "slaves", John Casor , resulting from the court ruling of a civil case. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 18th century. The Dutch West India Company introduced slavery in 1625 with the importation of eleven Black slaves into New Amsterdam (present-day New York City ). All

3762-601: The General Assembly created the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, with the power of eminent domain, to build a toll road from suburban Chesterfield County (mainly white) to downtown through the black East End and an adjoining low income white neighborhood. It displaced 1000 people and obliterated the historic Penitentiary Bottom sub-neighborhood. By the 1970s, Richmond's city council had become majority black, so another proposed superhighway project designed as

3861-451: The Jim Crow laws, to avoid racially motivated violence . To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans such as Anthony Overton and Mary McLeod Bethune continued to build their own schools , churches , banks, social clubs, and other businesses. In the last decade of the 19th century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in

3960-511: The Maggie L. Walker house, as well as listing the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and as a historic district in 1978. In the 1980s, historic tax credits by the federal government aided the restoration of dozens of houses on Leigh, Marshall and Clay Streets. City officials hoped that construction of the Greater Richmond Convention Center and Visitors Bureau at

4059-725: The Montgomery bus." The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson . Johnson put his support behind passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor unions , and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which expanded federal authority over states to ensure Black political participation through protection of voter registration and elections. By 1966,

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4158-736: The Patriot cause included James Armistead , Prince Whipple , and Oliver Cromwell . Around 15,000 Black Loyalists left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in England or its colonies, such as the Black Nova Scotians and the Sierra Leone Creole people . In the Spanish Louisiana , Governor Bernardo de Gálvez organized Spanish free Black men into two militia companies to defend New Orleans during

4257-401: The South . These circumstances changed due to participation in the military conflicts of the United States , substantial migration out of the South , the elimination of legal racial segregation , and the civil rights movement which sought political and social freedom. However, racism against African Americans and racial socioeconomic disparity remain a problem into the 21st century. In

4356-534: The South sparked the Great Migration during the first half of the 20th century which led to a growing African American community in Northern and Western United States. The rapid influx of Blacks disturbed the racial balance within Northern and Western cities, exacerbating hostility between both Blacks and Whites in the two regions. The Red Summer of 1919 was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across

4455-513: The US Census Bureau, evidence from the 2000 census indicates that many African and Caribbean immigrant ethnic groups do not identify as "Black, African Am., or Negro". Instead, they wrote in their own respective ethnic groups in the "Some Other Race" write-in entry. As a result, the census bureau devised a new, separate "African American" ethnic group category in 2010 for ethnic African Americans. Nigerian Americans and Ethiopian Americans were

4554-636: The US and emigrate to Liberia in West Africa. Liberia had been established in 1821 as a settlement by the American Colonization Society (ACS), with many abolitionist members of the ACS believing Black Americans would have greater opportunities for freedom and equality in Africa than they would in the US. Slaves not only represented a significant financial investment for their owners, but they also played

4653-497: The US as a result of race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919 and the Omaha race riot of 1919 . Overall, Blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced systemic discrimination in a plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for Blacks were routed to the lowest-status and restrictive in potential mobility. At

4752-407: The US. As a result of this large-scale forced movement, countless individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa. The 1863 photograph of Wilson Chinn , a branded slave from Louisiana, along with the famous image of Gordon and his scarred back, served as two of the earliest and most powerful examples of how

4851-533: The United States . Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American, the majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry. African-American history began in

4950-423: The United States . In June 2021, Juneteenth , a day which commemorates the end of slavery in the US, became a federal holiday. In 1790, when the first US census was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the Civil War , the African American population had increased to 4.4 million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of

5049-471: The United States population, at about 1.2 million people, largely found within the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities. Self-reported Black immigrants hailing from other countries in the Americas, such as Brazil and Canada, as well as several European countries, represented less than 0.1% of the population. Mixed-race Hispanic and non-Hispanic Americans who identified as being part Black, represented 0.9% of

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5148-748: The United States, a period often referred to as the " nadir of American race relations ". These discriminatory acts included racial segregation—upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896—which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, voter suppression or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities. The desperate conditions of African Americans in

5247-690: The United States, continuing to flourish until the 1860s. Historians estimate that nearly one million individuals were subjected to this forced migration, which was often referred to as a new "Middle Passage". The historian Ira Berlin described this internal forced migration of enslaved people as the "central event" in the life of a slave during the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Berlin emphasized that whether enslaved individuals were directly uprooted or lived in constant fear that they or their families would be involuntarily relocated, "the massive deportation traumatized Black people" throughout

5346-514: The Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of lifetime slavery when they sentenced John Punch , a Negro, to lifetime servitude under his master Hugh Gwyn , for running away. In Spanish Florida , some Spanish married or had unions with Pensacola , Creek or African women, both enslaved and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of mestizos and mulattos . The Spanish encouraged slaves from

5445-539: The city (which initially had no African-Americans on the city council) hired Harland Bartholomew & Associates to plan for redevelopment. The redevelopment plans targeted Jackson Ward, and had the effect of severely disintegrating the historic community's social structure, as well as clustered low-income persons in Jackson Ward and nearby Church Hill, and destroyed much of the pre-existing housing stock in order to construct freeways, broad urban boulevards, office buildings,

5544-559: The city of Richmond, it is estimated to have received over 22,000 interments and expanded to a little over 31 acres before it was closed to new burials in 1879 due to overcrowded conditions. The burial ground was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places as part of the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District in 2022. The heart of this burial ground

5643-544: The colonists died shortly afterward, due to an epidemic and the colony was abandoned. The settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to the Island of Hispaniola , whence they had come. The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free Black domestic servant from Seville , and Miguel Rodríguez, a White Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what

5742-430: The colony's slaves, however, were freed upon its surrender to the English. Massachusetts was the first English colony to legally recognize slavery in 1641. In 1662, Virginia passed a law that children of enslaved women would take the status of the mother, rather than that of the father, as was the case under common law . This legal principle was called partus sequitur ventrum . By an act of 1699, Virginia ordered

5841-534: The corridors of power to pastor Dr. A.W. Brown. The highway (now part of I-95 ) was rerouted slightly, and the church became the only building to remain on the north side of Duval Street. The turnpike opened in 1958, but Sixth Mount Zion's congregation lost 1000 members. Jackson Ward housed many involved in the desegregation battles that culminated in the Massive Resistance crisis of 1955–1965. Lawyers Oliver Hill , Martin A. Martin and Spottswood William Robinson III , represented many Virginians in cases brought with

5940-607: The cultural character of the neighborhood. Each first Friday of the month, First Fridays Artwalk is held at night on Broad Street. Art Galleries open their doors to an outdoor party that includes live music, including Jazz and Salsa. Local restaurants, bars and a coffee shops serve customers who come to the First Fridays Art Walk . On New Year's Eve 2014, the heavy metal band Gwar opened GwarBar in Jackson Ward. The band described it as "a fantasy land of food and beverage, catering to everyone from local punk metal freaks, rock stars, businessmen, celebrity chefs and starving artists." Since

6039-428: The deportation of all free Blacks, effectively defining all people of African descent who remained in the colony as slaves. In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Blacks (and Native Americans) from purchasing Christians (in this act meaning White Europeans) but allowing them to buy people "of their owne nation". In Spanish Louisiana , although there was no movement toward abolition of

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6138-406: The eastern edge of Jackson Ward would bring renewed vitality to the neighborhood. However, convention center's construction destroyed a number of historic houses (including that used by the Hill, Tucker and Marsh law firm), and separated Jackson Ward from much of downtown. Vacant and substandard houses in the neighborhood have been targeted in Richmond's Neighborhoods in Bloom program . In some areas,

6237-480: The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, expanded upon the aims of the civil rights movement to include economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from White authority. During the post-war period, many African Americans continued to be economically disadvantaged relative to other Americans. Average Black income stood at 54 percent of that of White workers in 1947, and 55 percent in 1962. In 1959, median family income for Whites

6336-501: The firm continued with Hill, and later attorneys Samuel Wilbert Tucker and Henry L. Marsh After desegregation, as black Virginians became more widely integrated into Richmond's other business and residential areas, Jackson Ward's role as a center of black commerce and entertainment declined. Like most older urban neighborhoods of a similar era, the housing stock of Jackson Ward deteriorated as absentee landlords took over from single-family households. Richmond also developed what became

6435-480: The first African American woman elected to the US Senate . There were 8,936 Black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001, there were 484 Black mayors. In 2005, the number of Africans immigrating to the United States, in a single year, surpassed the peak number who were involuntarily brought to the United States during the Atlantic slave trade . On November 4, 2008, Democratic Senator Barack Obama —the son of

6534-450: The help of the NAACP . The predecessor firm helped achieve pay equity for black teachers before World War II, and after the war helped desegregate Richmond's schools. The represented the plaintiffs in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County , one of the cases that was part of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education , which declared segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. After Martin's death,

6633-402: The highway would be built through Jackson Ward. The consultants' initial report had insisted that destroying existing housing "offers no serious obstacle to a highway location." The expressway destroyed 1000 homes, cut a block-wide barrier canyon through what had been the neighborhood's historic center, blocked 31 streets and eliminated pedestrian pathways between the newly created halves. However,

6732-456: The interchange of Interstates 64 and 95, and houses three cemeteries: Hebrew Cemetery , Shockoe Hill Cemetery , and the long invisible Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground . The headquarters for the Richmond Department of Redevelopment and Housing are situated in the neighborhood along with the Richmond Alternative School. Most of the western part of the neighborhood is occupied with higher density structure, but housing becomes less dense towards

6831-434: The intersection of Chamberlayne Parkway and West Leigh Street. Other notable residents included Bishop F. M. Whittle , Adolph Dill , Max Robinson and brother Randall Robinson . Jackson Ward was central to the Civil Rights Movement in Richmond. In 1940, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond Housing Authority, which could condemn property as well as issue bonds to construct housing. In 1941, 1956 and 1961,

6930-489: The most reported sub-Saharan African groups in the United States. Historically, African Americans have been undercounted in the US census due to a number of factors. In the 2020 census, the African American population was undercounted at an estimated rate of 3.3%, up from 2.1% in 2010. Texas has the largest African American population by state. Followed by Texas is Florida , with 3.8 million, and Georgia , with 3.6 million. After 100 years of African Americans leaving

7029-447: The name of the area's political district within the city, or ward , from 1871 to 1905, yet has remained in use long after losing its original meaning. After the American Civil War , previously free blacks joined freed slaves and their descendants and created a thriving African-American business community, and became known as the "Black Wall Street of America." Leaders included such influential people as John Mitchell, Jr. , editor of

7128-403: The neighborhood banded together to rescue Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church , which had been established in 1867 by Rev. John Jasper and initially occupied a building purchased from white Presbyterians but which had been renovated in 1887 and held 1400 worshipers. The church secretary, Cerelia Johnson, worked as an elevator operator in Richmond's City Hall, and conveyed discussions she overheard in

7227-618: The neighborhood is dominated by the former Armstrong High School , now the Richmond Public Schools Adult Career Development Center. Armstrong's sports field is now Abner Clay Park , which has a bandstand, football field, basketball court and tennis facilities. Charles Thaddeus Russell was one of Virginia's first licensed black architects. A majority of the workers and contractors hired by Russell were black. He designed homes in and businesses in Jackson Ward. He also designed many buildings in an area that

7326-557: The neighborhood. Furthermore, the neighborhood's continued change focuses development on mixed-use new construction as much as restoration of existing historic buildings. The earliest houses of Jackson Ward were a series of small cottages built in the Federal style . By the later 1830s up until the Civil War, the Greek Revival style was prominent, which represents a major part of Richmond's pre-war architectural heritage. And then beginning in

7425-714: The new projects, many found the public housing demeaning or simply unattractive. Both black and white realtors practiced blockbusting . As urban renewal progressed, many historic black churches followed their congregations and moved from Jackson Ward to north Richmond. These included the First African Baptist Church and St. Philip's Episcopal Church. Both moved to churches formerly used by white congregations who had followed their congregations to suburban Lakeside. Between 1950 and 1960, Richmond's population decreased by 10,000 persons, while surrounding Henrico County (which had 57,340 people in 1950) grew to 117,339 residents by

7524-474: The new spaces (all segregated by race until 1964) had families who had lived in Apostle Town. During the 1950s, Richmond destroyed 4700 units of housing in black neighborhoods and replaced them with 1736 units of public housing, mostly concentrated in Richmond's East End and all within three miles of Richmond's center. While some displaced people received small grants, as well as priority in applying for housing in

7623-458: The newborn medium of photography could be used to visually document and encapsulate the brutality and cruelty of slavery. Emigration of free Blacks to their continent of origin had been proposed since the Revolutionary war. After Haiti became independent, it tried to recruit African Americans to migrate there after it re-established trade relations with the United States. The Haitian Union was

7722-451: The overall White vote, although he won a larger proportion of White votes than any previous non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter . Obama was reelected for a second and final term , by a similar margin on November 6, 2012. In 2021, Kamala Harris , the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, became the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to serve as Vice President of

7821-417: The overall population of the country. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as " freemen ". By 1900, the Black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million. In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South. Large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence. The Great Migration , as it

7920-452: The population. Of the 12.6% of United States residents who identified as Black, around 10.3% were "native Black American" or ethnic African Americans, who are direct descendants of West/Central Africans brought to the US as slaves. These individuals make up well over 80% of all Blacks in the country. When including people of mixed-race origin , about 13.5% of the US population self-identified as Black or "mixed with Black". However, according to

8019-509: The post-war Reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans, that period ended in 1876. By the late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement . Segregation was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with. Most African Americans obeyed

8118-504: The post–civil rights era. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress . In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected governor in US history. Clarence Thomas succeeded Marshall to become the second African American Supreme Court Justice in 1991. In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became

8217-744: The progress of renovation has been slow, most notably with the First Virginia Volunteers Battalion Armory , best known as the Leigh Street Armory. In the mid-1980s, the Richmond School Board leased the armory building to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, and the museum is expected to open in the armory in 2015. Many Richmond residents have bought houses in Jackson Ward to renovate and restore in order to live in an historic area and revive

8316-620: The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865. While the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited US citizenship to Whites only, the 14th Amendment (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave Black men the right to vote. African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools and community/civic associations, to have space away from White control or oversight. While

8415-461: The right to carry arms and boosting their earning power. However, actually these privileges distanced free Black men from enslaved Blacks and encouraged them to identify with Whites. Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the US Constitution through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the 3/5 compromise . Due to the restrictions of Section 9, Clause 1 , Congress

8514-456: The sixth highest concentration of public housing stock among cities over 200,000 people. For example, the Richmond Housing Authority built Mosby Court East and Mosby Court West in 1962 (all within a mile of Creighton Court, Fairfield Court and Whitcomb Court), then the 30-acre site made possible through urban clearance received a new school, Mosby School, designed to hold 1500 junior high school students and 1000 elementary school students. In 1966,

8613-664: The south in large numbers seeking better opportunities and treatment in the west and north, a movement known as the Great Migration , there is now a reverse trend, called the New Great Migration . As with the earlier Great Migration, the New Great Migration is primarily directed toward cities and large urban areas, such as Charlotte , Houston , Dallas , Fort Worth , Huntsville , Raleigh , Tampa , San Antonio , New Orleans , Memphis , Nashville , Jacksonville , and so forth. A growing percentage of African Americans from

8712-478: The start of the 21st century, the neighborhood's reputation has rapidly changed from being that of a high crime neighborhood, into a popular historic district which rivals that of the Fan, and Church Hill. However, the revival of the neighborhood has led to gentrification controversy, particularly since while in 2000 it still had a majority African American population, by 2010 nearly twice as many white people as black lived in

8811-734: The system's worst elements. First established in South Carolina in 1704, groups of armed White men— slave patrols —were formed to monitor enslaved Black people. Their function was to police slaves, especially fugitives. Slave owners feared that slaves might organize revolts or slave rebellions , so state militias were formed to provide a military command structure and discipline within the slave patrols. These patrols were used to detect, encounter, and crush any organized slave meetings which might lead to revolts or rebellions . The earliest African American congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following

8910-578: The total population, declined until 1930 and has been rising since then. By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the US population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900. At the time of the 2000 US census , 54.8% of African Americans lived in the South . In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7% in the Midwest , while only 8.9% lived in

9009-515: The west and north are migrating to the southern region of the US for economic and cultural reasons. The New York City , Chicago , and Los Angeles metropolitan areas have the highest decline in African Americans, while Atlanta , Dallas , and Houston have the highest increase respectively. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando. Despite recent declines, as of 2020,

9108-543: Was $ 5,600 (equivalent to $ 58,532 in 2023), compared with $ 2,900 (equivalent to $ 30,311 in 2023) for non-White families. In 1965, 43 percent of all Black families fell into the poverty bracket, earning under $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 29,005 in 2023) a year. The 1960s saw improvements in the social and economic conditions of many Black Americans. From 1965 to 1969, Black family income rose from 54 to 60 percent of White family income. In 1968, 23 percent of Black families earned under $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 26,285 in 2023)

9207-401: Was a Whites-only establishment, with Blacks (such as Duke Ellington ) allowed to perform, but to a White audience. Black Americans also found a new ground for political power in Northern cities, without the enforced disabilities of Jim Crow . By the 1950s, the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. A 1955 lynching that sparked public outrage about injustice was that of Emmett Till ,

9306-464: Was also called the "Harlem of the South". Venues along "The Deuce " (2nd Street) such as the Hippodrome Theater were frequented by Duke Ellington , Ella Fitzgerald , Bill "Bojangles" Robinson , Lena Horne , Cab Calloway , Billie Holiday , Nat King Cole , James Brown and other Chitlin' Circuit performers. A statue of Robinson dancing on a staircase is at the center of the neighborhood at

9405-449: Was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million Black people moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed , with more African Americans moving south to the Sun Belt than leaving it. The following table of the African American population in the United States over time shows that the African American population, as a percentage of

9504-807: Was known as “Black Wall Street of America.” Historic churches in Jackson Ward include the Third Street Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church , the Hood Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church , the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church . The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church was known as the home of African-American evangelist pastor Rev. John Jasper , whose famous "Sun Do Move" sermon brought him fame . The Leigh Street Armory building

9603-520: Was revitalized, and since 2016 is the home of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia , which was previously located at 00 Clay Street in Jackson Ward. The long invisible Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground is located in Jackson Ward. Likely the largest burial ground for free people of color and the enslaved in the United States, it is one of Virginia's most endangered historic places. Established in 1816 as two (1 acre) plots by

9702-413: Was similar to slavery. Servants could be bought, sold, or leased, and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or attempting to running away. Unlike slaves, they were freed after their term of service expired or if their freedom was purchased. Their children did not inherit their status, and on their release from contract they received "a year's provision of corn, double apparel, tools necessary", and

9801-544: Was unable to pass an Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves until 1807. Fugitive slave laws (derived from the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution— Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 ) were passed by Congress in both 1793 and 1850 , guaranteeing the right of a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave anywhere within the US. Slave owners, who viewed enslaved people as property, ensured that it became

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