vivian Mckelvey

Mrs. Vivian McKelvey had a positive experience while living in the 5th ward. Her father moved to the 5th ward when he was 3 years old, then lived all over the neighborhood, along Greg Street, Waco Street, and near Liberty Road. Her father described to her while growing up in the 5th ward that, “You could smell the creosote plant and it was just apart of life in the community. As my family members passed away from these different forms of cancer, no one attributed it to where they were living.” Mrs. McKelvey has lost four close family members who lived in 5th ward due to cancer. She said, “There is a level of sadness. For those who have children, they miss out on the opportunity to interact with their aunts and uncles. Everyone wants more moments. Everyone is riddled with cancer and to be honest that’s all we know.” Mrs. McKelvey has joy and positive memories about her time in the Fifth Ward. “I have a lot of memories there. I learned how to skate at Lockwood skating rink. It’s an area that changed lives and created opportunities for a lot of people. It’s a sad situation with the creosote. All they had to do was follow regulations.”

“The contamination impacted my desire to stay. I was there with my daughter and as a new mother you want to make sure they have the best quality of life they can. I don’t think Fifth Ward is the best place to stay because they don’t regulate.”

The following audio clips are from an interview with Vivian McKelvey conducted by Kenedy Henderson.
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(01)

Dreams for Showing Her Daughter Fifth Ward

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"I would love to take my daughter back there and show her where her grandfather is from, where her great-grandfather and great-grandmother raised their children. My grandfather worked for one of the first black record companies here in Houston, which is Peacock Records. That is a historical record company. And my grandfather was one of the first promoters, on the north side of Houston. And there was one on the southside Houston to go around and broadcast for the Chitlin’ Circuit that came through Houston to let them know when people were coming here. And in that he became good friends with BB King, Little Richard, Red Fox. Those are the experiences of my aunts and uncles, you know, growing up and getting a chance to sit at the table with them and eat with them and, you know, get to know them. It's a very rich history. And there's so much that people don't really know about the history of Fifth Ward."

https://upliftwebdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/New-York-Vibe.mp3

(02)

Story of Her Father Growing Up with Creosote

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"My father told me that growing up you could smell the creosote plant. But you know when you're growing up during that time period or during that era, that was just a part of living or life. You didn't think anything else about it. You just knew that you smelled it. You could always smell it, um, and things like that. So that was an experience. But other than that, I mean, growing up in fifth quarters, you know, it was fine."

https://upliftwebdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/New-York-Vibe.mp3

(03)

On Air and Soil Testing

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"So just in terms of safety, air-quality-wise, no, it's not safe. It needs to be tested. And it needs to be tested on a consistent basis. One of the ways that they can do that is to go ahead and enforce some equity amongst the residents there and employ some of the people to become testers. You don't need a college degree to do it."

https://upliftwebdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/New-York-Vibe.mp3

(04)

Hopes for Fifth Ward

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"We need to get young people trained on how to utilize their voice to affect change. It's not something that you just learn how to do, it's something that you can actually train people. I would love to see more people involved in the grassroot politics. Because those are those leaders who can go and lobby on behalf of the community to make some of these changes. But a lot of people there are uninformed and, I do my best in the position that I am with the people that I work with to get them informed, but it takes more than one person. And I just believe that education and information is essential to the development of the Fifth Ward area."

https://upliftwebdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/New-York-Vibe.mp3

(05)

Impact of Cancer on Family

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"I have a family where drinking and smoking was little to nonexistent. Especially with my grandparents. They did not smoke, nor did they drink. And my father, he doesn't smoke or drink and never has. It impacted our lives because my grandfather, he passed away from lung cancer. At the time when all of, when these deaths were occurring,  no one attributed to the potential of it coming from where they grew up or anything in relation to the creosote plant, but they were there, they smelled it, but they didn't know that it would have long term effects. And so my grandfather passed from lung cancer. My aunt, - one of my dad's older sisters - she passed from lung cancer. My dad's older brother, my uncle Ray, he passed from throat cancer. My grandmother she dealt with a round of cancer, I’m not sure what kind she had though because my father, at the time she also had diabetes, so he was uncertain about which cancer was affecting her. She was a little bit older. My father has had cancer. He's gone through three rounds of cancer - two prostate, two rounds of prostate cancer, and he's also had kidney cancer."

https://upliftwebdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/New-York-Vibe.mp3