{"id":1959,"date":"2018-04-24T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2018-05-03T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:35:08","slug":"arthur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2018\/04\/24\/arthur\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Arthur Wilson sits peacefully while loud sawing in the building behind him drowns out city noise. (Photos by Chance Evans)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

by Chance Evans<\/p>\n

Walking\u00a0east on\u00a0First\u00a0Street, away\u00a0from Broad, can be a\u00a0bleak beginning. The first block is one abandoned and boarded-up business after another. But then things change. A giant\u00a0mural\u00a0announces your arrival in\u00a0\u201cHistoric Jackson Ward\u201d\u00a0with vibrant colors and\u00a0a\u00a0grandness of scale, and\u00a0there’s nothing bleak about it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vibrant and large, the Jackson Ward mural on 1st St. in Richmond, Virginia brightly marks the historic territory.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The rest of the street continues in this\u00a0vein,\u00a0showing the hardships and the resurgence of the community.<\/p>\n

Up ahead,\u00a0I see a\u00a0few people milling about\u00a0in front of another old, boarded-up building. I hear lots of\u00a0commotion\u00a0coming from inside, yet\u00a0my eye goes to\u00a0a\u00a0gray-haired\u00a0gentleman sitting peacefully\u00a0in\u00a0an\u00a0electric wheelchair.<\/p>\n

His name, he says, is\u00a0Arthur Wilson.<\/p>\n

He has lived in Jackson Ward, on and off, since the 1970’s, which means that\u00a0Mr. Wilson\u00a0has seen some change:\u00a0from the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement to the drug-related violence of the 1990’s to the present-day comeback of a proud neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

An abandoned and boarded business front stands adjacent to a crisp and polished business on 1st St. in Richmond, Virginia.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think\u00a0it’s\u00a0a good thing. All these empty shops are filling up.\u00a0 Jackson Ward is still on its own in a number of ways, but it is becoming more a part of the collective Richmond community. I like it here. I lived here when I was younger and being back here is nice. It is a beautiful thing.”<\/p>\n

Mr. Wilson\u2019s optimism\u00a0is shared by many\u00a0here, and his\u00a0voice\u00a0resonates with\u00a0an appreciation for\u00a0Jackson Ward’s history\u00a0and\u00a0the change that is occurring\u00a0today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chance Evans Walking\u00a0east on\u00a0First\u00a0Street, away\u00a0from Broad, can be a\u00a0bleak beginning. The first block is one abandoned and boarded-up business after another. But then things change. A giant\u00a0mural\u00a0announces your arrival in\u00a0\u201cHistoric Jackson Ward\u201d\u00a0with vibrant colors and\u00a0a\u00a0grandness of scale, and\u00a0there’s nothing bleak about it. The rest of the street continues in this\u00a0vein,\u00a0showing the hardships and the Read more about Arthur<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4012,"featured_media":1918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[85395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neighbors"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2018\/04\/Image-1-Centerpiece-Arthur_Edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7o53H-arthur","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}