After slavery ended in Texas in June 1865, ex-slaves were forced to live in separate enclaves within each of Houston's wards. The voting population of the wards was lower than the population, since women and African-Americans had been forbidden from voting. Instead, wards followed boundaries of features such as the Buffalo Bayou, Congress Street, and Main Street. Each ward elected two aldermen to the Houston City Council. The election of the Mayor of Houston was citywide.Kever, Jeannie. "Pride lives on in city's six historical wards." Houston Chronicle. September 7, 2004. Retrieved on October 20, 2011. Betty Chapman, a historian, said "They really were mixed societies in the early days. Where you worked dictated where you lived, not who you wanted to live around."
