Why Do Highways Run Through Black Neighborhoods?

by Shernay Williams

From Interstate 90, stretching from Seattle to Boston, to Interstate 10, spanning Jacksonville, Florida, to Santa Monica, California, the nation’s interstate highway system has connected U.S. cities for half a century and serves as an economic backbone. But the development of this intricate, federal highway system has a dark history of destroying Black communities.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, federal contractors building the system deliberately mapped routes that rammed through and dismantled Black neighborhoods — payback, some say, for gains made during the Civil Rights Movement.

That’s the premise behind “Interstate,” a new documentary currently on the film festival circuit. Created by Emmy award-winning journalist Oscar Corral and filmmaker Haleem Muhsin, the doc