Removing Highways to Heal Racial Wrongs

For more than 50 years, Interstate 81 highway has cut through the Southside neighborhood of Syracuse, a city in northwestern New York State. Smoke from vehicles traveling on the elevated¹ road would fall down to the area where most people are Black and poor.

Now, New York State wants to replace that part of the elevated highway with a street-level road. The aim is to connect the city's urban areas again. And building could begin as soon as next year.

The plan has raised hopes of better times in a city where one in three residents lives in poverty. Some say it could also make up for the damage done to Black residents during the building of Interstate 81 years ago. They were forced to move and have been living under the elevated highway ever since.

David Rufus is a lifelong Southside resident. He works as an organizer for the rights group New York Civil Liberties Union. He said, "When they put that highway up, they destroyed this community. Now here's an opportunity to right that wrong by bringing it down."

Syracuse was not the only U.S. city where highway-building in the 1950s and 1960s displaced³ Black residents.

Historians⁵ are now saying that local officials saw the proposed interstate highway system as an easy way to tear down what they regarded as "slum⁶" neighborhoods near downtown business areas.

The U.S. federal government paid up to 90 percent of the cost of building the new highway. As residents had to move away, it was easier for politicians and business leaders to work on "urban renewal⁷" projects.

Joseph DiMento is a law professor at the University of California, Irvine and an expert in the policies of the highway-building. "It was a mistake that many cities were making," he said. "The reasons they were built were heavily for removal of Blacks from certain areas," he added.

Road builders at the time were largely free to ignore environmental, historical, social or other concerns. That permitted them to pay attention only to the most direct way from one point to another.

Often, that meant directing those highways through Black neighborhoods, where land was inexpensive and there was little political opposition⁸.

Raymond Mohl was an urban historian⁴ and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research found that the highway builders targeted some Black neighborhoods even when better paths were available. His research found the following examples:

In the city of Miami, Interstate 95 was built in Overtown, a Black neighborhood known as the "Harlem of the South," rather than a nearby unused train pathway.

In Nashville, Tennessee, Interstate 40 took a sharp turn, cutting the Black community of North Nashville into two parts.

In Montgomery, Alabama, the state highway director was a high-level officer of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist⁹ white group. He set the path for Interstate 85 through a neighborhood where many Black civil rights leaders lived.

In New Orleans and Kansas City, officials moved highways from white neighborhoods to integrated¹⁰ or mostly Black areas.

Residents in a few cities, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, successfully organized to block highway building in Black neighborhoods. But that was not usually the case.

Anthony Foxx served as transportation secretary under President Barack Obama. He said that in all, highway building displaced more than 1 million Americans. Many of them were poor minorities.

Words in This Story

highway – n. a wide road that is built for fast travel

elevated – adj. raised above the ground

resident – n. someone who lives in a particular place

displace² – v. to force (people or animals) to leave the area where they live

slum - n. an area of a city where poor people live and the buildings are in bad condition

1 elevated   

a.提高的，升高的；高贵的，庄严的

参考例句：

• He elevated many of his friends to powerful positions within the government. 他将许多朋友都提拔到政府部门的要职上。
• The house is in an elevated position, overlooking the town. 这栋房子地势较高，可以俯瞰全城。

2 displace   

vt.取代，迫使...离开家园，使离开原位

参考例句：

• The extraordinary thing was that french did not displace English.奇特的是，法语没有取代英语。
• At present,obviously,nevertheless,he was not likely to displace himself.但时至今日，很清楚，他不可能再迁徙了。

3 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。

4 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

5 historians   

n.历史学家，史学工作者( historian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Historians seem to have confused the chronology of these events. 历史学家好像把这些事件发生的年代顺序搞混了。
• Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。

6 slum   

n.贫民窟，贫民区；vi.（因好奇而）逛贫民区

参考例句：

• These children came from a slum area.这些孩子来自贫民窟区。
• What a wretched existence the people in the slum lead!这个贫民窟里的人们过着多么令人悲惨的生活啊！

7 renewal   

adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来

参考例句：

• Her contract is coming up for renewal in the autumn.她的合同秋天就应该续签了。
• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

10 integrated   

a.整合的，完整的

参考例句：

• A fully integrated low phase noise LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented.介绍了一种全集成的LC压控振荡器(VCO)的设计。