Before the Highway: Learn More

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Join AARP for just $15 for your first year when you sign up for automatic renewal. Gain instant access to exclusive products, hundreds of discounts and services, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.

The "Before the Highway" collection of articles published on AARP.org/Livable examines — through the eyes of seven witnesses age 50 or older — the displacement caused by the creation of the interstate highway system in the mid-20th-century.

The articles and video links below provide deeper and different dives into the history of the highway program, and the lasting impact it has had on predominantly low-income communities of color. The links also lead to informative content about projects both planned and underway to repair some of the damage done.

GOVERNMENT RESOURCES

U.S. Department of Transportation

^{Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program}

Federal Highway Administration

^{Highway History: The Interstate System}

^{Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating The Interstate System}

^{The Greatest Decade 1956-1966 Part 1 Essential to the National Interest}

^{The Greatest Decade 1956-1966 Part 2 The Battle of Its Life}

^{The Genie in The Bottle: The Interstate System and Urban Problems 1939-1957}

MEDIA LINKS

^{"A Brief History of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways" (NPR)}

^{"Highways Have Sliced Through City After CIty. Can the U.S. Undo the Damage?" (The New York Times)}

^{"How Interstate Highways Gutted Communities — and Reinforced Segregation" (History.com)}

^{"In the Name of Progress: What Dallas Has Taken from the Black Community" (D)}

^{"The Racist History of America’s Interstate Highway Boom" (Los Angeles Times)}

^{"The Role of Highways in American Poverty" (The Atlantic)}

^{"What It Looks Like to Reconnect Black Communities Torn Apart by Highways" (Bloomberg)}

Specific Cities (alphabetical by state):

^{California: "Oakland: Would Dismantling Interstate 980 Repair Damage to Black Neighborhoods?" (SiliconValley.com)}

^{Connecticut: "Did a Highway Kill the City of Hartford" (Common Edge)}

^{Florida: "Miami's 'Harlem of the South' Tries to Heal From Highway Scars" (NBC News)}

^{Los Angeles: "This L.A. Freeway is the Butt of Many Jokes. Can It Have New Life as Parks and Housing?" (Los Angeles Times)}

^{Louisiana: "Racial Healing in New Orleans" (Into America) | "Righting the Historical Wrong of the Claiborne Highway" (The Daily)}

^{Maryland: "Baltimore Rethinks 'Highway to Nowhere" (Baltimore Banner)}

^{North Carolina: "Durham's Hayti Community: A Black Business Mecca Crushed by Empty Promises Reckons With the Past" (ABC 11) | "Health Equity Tour: Durham's Hayti Neighborhood" (The Emancipator/Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University)}

^{Oklahoma: "A Highway Destroyed Tulsa's Thriving Black Wall Street — Now There's Hope It Could Come Back" (The Guardian)}

ORGANIZATIONAL LINKS

^{"Highways to Boulevards/Freeway Fighters" (Congress for the New Urbanism)}

^{"Dangerous by Design Report" (Smart Growth America)}

^{"Highways and Racism: A Brief History" (Sierra Club)}

^{"How Can Highways Be Racist?" (Sojourner's)}

^{"The American Metropolis at Century's End: Past and Future Influences" (Fannie Mae Foundation)}

The 'Before the Highway' Interviews

Visit the "Before the Highway" landing page for interviews with impacted communities in Florida, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.

^{Page published February 2023 | updated March 2024}