The After-effects of Interstate Highways

Out of sight out of mind. This is the mentality of many U.S. citizens who believe that policies that do not necessarily affect them are ok no matter how they affect someone else. The U.S. government approval of the Interstate Highway in 1956 was seen as a tremendous success but the underlying negative impact that the highways had can still be seen today. The poverty and crime in major cities in the U.S. is at an all-time high and the educational systems in cities are getting worse. The black communities have suffered the most in many of the major cities that these interstate highways passed through. The U.S. government essentially created a de facto segregation system right under the noses of the U.S. Public. De facto segregation means "racial separation that occurs "as a matter of fact”, e.g., by housing patterns (where one lives) or by school enrollment (where one goes to school)." (Adversity)

By far the biggest impact that affected the urban black community was the division that occurred between the white and black communities in the cities. The interstate highways essentially divided cities into two distinct sections, which consisted of a suburban exterior, where many of the white communities flocked, and the urban interior, where most of the black communities are concentrated. The division occurred because the interstate highways essentially eliminated any reason for a person to live directly in a city if they wanted to work there. The white community used this to their advantage and began to move out of the inner cities, which were just beginning to integrate schools, and created the suburban communities we see today. The black communities, however, were not very wealthy during the fifties and sixties therefore unable to afford a similar move away from the inner city limits. "We were investing billions of dollars in a highway system that segregated the nation by allowing people to be able to run away from urban areas that were integrated to suburban areas that were all white," says Angela Glover Blackwell, the head of PolicyLink, (Back of the Bus) This eventually led to the deterioration of the educational systems in the inner city and created and increase in crime and poverty.

Still to this day, you can see the effects that the interstate highway system had on the inner cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and Atlanta to name a few. These urban cities continue to be riddled with the same problems that originally occurred i.e. inadequate school systems, segregated schooling, and increased crime and poverty. There is no easy way to alleviate these problems quickly, but we need to continue to create policies which can save these urban cities from the potential doom that may happen if these trends continue. We must eliminate the division that we see between the black and white communities in the city as well as upgrade the schools in these areas so that the citizens of the urban areas able to gain an education and not fall into the traps of crime and poverty.

Bernstein, Andrea, and Nancy Solomon. "Back of the Bus: Race, Mass Transit and Inequality." Transportation Nation. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. .

"Definition of 'Segregation'" Adversity.Net Home Page. Adversity.Net. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. .