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.

[10] 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.

As urban renewal progressed, many historic black churches followed their congregations and moved from Jackson Ward to north Richmond.

[13] 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 the highway would be built through Jackson Ward.

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.

The church secretary, Cerelia Johnson, worked as an elevator operator in Richmond's City Hall, and conveyed discussions she overheard in the corridors of power to pastor Dr. A.W.

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.

[citation needed] Richmond also developed what became the sixth highest concentration of public housing stock among cities over 200,000 people.

Also, the city council secured identification of the Maggie Walker House as a national landmark, and preservation of the Leigh Street corridor.

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 the eastern edge of Jackson Ward would bring renewed vitality to the neighborhood.

[19] 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.

[20] Many Richmond residents have bought houses in Jackson Ward to renovate and restore in order to live in an historic area and revive the cultural character of the neighborhood.

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.

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.

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.