1956: The Freeway Revolts
Homeowners resisting highway intrusions in Washington, DC.
Source: D.C. PUBLIC LIBRARY
During Nixon’s term, African Americans were subjugated to more than just racist drug laws. Using the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 as support, federal and state governments passed racist zoning and “redevelopment” laws that forced hundreds of thousands of African Americans from their city homes and into other equally marginalized neighborhoods or poorly constructed public housing. This mass displacement was enacted to make room for “beltways” around cities and freeways through urban centers, which were quickly being transformed from “blighted” Black neighborhoods to profitable commercial centers, such as sports arenas (Thompson Fullilove, 2016, p. 66). In cities like New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Baltimore, this racist redevelopment led to more uprisings that became known as the “highway revolts” (in Baltimore this was known as the “freeway revolt”) where community organizations protested and filed legal action against these projects.
Organizations like Baltimore’s Relocation Action Movement (RAM) and the Movement Against Destruction (MAD) argued that beltways and county zoning laws prevented African Americans from leaving cities and that freeways displaced Black families and divided their neighborhoods. They also asserted that these racist policies profited white developers and improved commuting for white, middle-class suburbanites while doing little for African Americans (Pietila, 2010, pp. 211, 212, 219; Thompson Fullilove, 2016, p. 64).