During the largest public works program ever attempted in the United States, Black and Latino communities in cities across the country met the blade of the bulldozer and the crush of the wrecking ball, making room for ribbons of new highway.
Whether through blindness or design, the mid-century American interstate highway program demolished homes and bisected communities, driven by the promise of prosperity, faster commutes and jobs.
“Everything we needed was in our neighborhood,” said Barbara Lacen-Keller, 75, a lifelong resident of Tremé, a once bustling New Orleans community that Interstate 10 cut through in the 1960s. “The highway really destroyed that.”
Listen to (or read) this NBC article about the revitalizing power of urban highway removal.