History
Most of the boundaries of Wards 1 through 11 were drawn in 1852 when the city was reorganized from three separate municipalities into one centralized government. With various changes, these boundaries remain largely the same. The rest of the Wards were formed from the expansion of the city boundaries in the 1870s. The 12th, 13th, and 14th Wards were formed by annexation of land up river from the older city of New Orleans that had been Jefferson City and Greenville; the 15th by the annexation of the city of Algiers, Louisiana across the Mississippi River from the rest of the city, and finally the 16th and 17th Wards formed from the annexed city of Carrollton, still the furthest portion of the city up river at the Jefferson Parish line.
Beginning in the 1980s, residents began to give new cultural meaning to wards as part of their local identity. Extremely prevalent in New Orleans hip hop (particularly Bounce Music), jazz, and other local genres of music, the concepts of 'calling out' one's ward (stating the ward of one's residence), and 'throwing up' one's ward (holding one's digits on one or both hands to signify their ward) have become mainstays of local culture and are even embraced casually at culturally mainstream events such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Although this practice is often seen as overly territorial and hostile - sometimes blamed for inciting violence - many simply see it as a friendly camaraderie shared with one's neighborhood.
Read more about this topic: Wards Of New Orleans
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)