Why highways were designed to run through Black communities. SC faces historic dilemma again.

By Adam Parker [email protected] Oct 17, 2020 

In 1965, the house at 270 Ashley Ave. was bulldozed. This was no ordinary Charleston house. This was the home of J. Arthur Brown, president of the South Carolina NAACP. This was the place where plans were laid — to integrate the Charleston County public schools, to join the Kress sit-ins — where the civil rights movement pulsated strongly in Charleston. This was a house in the heart of a mostly Black, mostly self-sufficient community during the period of legalized segregation.

Then came the surveyors, the heavy equipment, the cement.

Do pedestrians need a new bridge? (copy)
The pedestrian bridge over the Septima P. Clark Parkway was an afterthought according to Millicent Brown. It was built a full 10 years after the roadway. Photo: https://www.postandcourier.com/ file

Numerous road projects were undertaken nationwide in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the federal interstate highway program. Project managers knew their roads would damage and divide Black communities, pursuing them in the name of “slum clearance” or “urban renewal,” according to Richard Rothstein, author of “The Color of Law.” Constructing highways became an excuse for the large-scale transfer of Black populations. Read the entire article HERE. Other articles:

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