Entry · catalog no. 9603
Fifth Ward
/ /ˈfɪfθ wɔɹd/ /FIFTH WORD
noun · Houston, Texas · 1860s
✓ Verified
1.
A neighborhood of Houston north of Buffalo Bayou, historically one of the city's major Black communities, where residents and artists often claim it as a point of identity. Locals sometimes call it the Nickel.
“I'm Fifth Ward born and raised.”
Origin & Attribution
Houston created its Fifth Ward in 1866 as one of its political districts, and BlackPast records that freed people settled there from 1865 and that the area was majority Black by 1880. A Louisiana Creole community, Frenchtown, grew inside it from the early 1920s. Wikipedia notes the local nickname the Nickel; that nickname rests on that source alone.
1866
Fifth Ward established as a Houston political district.
1927
Phillis Wheatley High School opens in the ward.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Houston, Texas · 1860s
Spoken by
Black Houstonians and Houston artists
$FIFTHWThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady124 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1866
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Mainstream crossover
1990
search interest spikes
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
BlackPast, 'Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas (1866- )'
encyclopedia, 2026
■
+ Cite a sourceWikipedia, 'Fifth Ward, Houston'
encyclopedia, 2026
See also