Small businesses in both Houston’s Second Ward and Third Ward will be the focus of a community-engaged research project underwritten by a grant just awarded to Rice University. The success of businesses in those two historic Houston neighborhoods during the last two decades will be studied under a $300,000 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Community-Engaged Research grant awarded to the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. After World War II, Third Ward blossomed into a predominantly African American community while Second Ward developed into a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Over the last two decades, both wards have undergone economic revitalization and demographic transformation.