Social Justice
The highway was built by tearing through and separating neighborhoods. The communities most impacted back then are still paying the price today. We have a chance to do things differently. Learn how we can repair past wrongs rather than repeating them.
Shameful national history
The Federal Highway Act of 1956 is the most important event in the creation of the modern United States. This act literally paved the way for what still is the largest network of roadways in the world. However, it is very important to note that Jim Crow laws were still prevalent until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and many communities did not have the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Therefore, a large proportion of people in the US did not have a say in the most influential decision of modern times. The highways were purposefully built directly through poor neighborhoods of mostly Black and Latino communities. With these communities forcefully divided and losing everything, access to jobs, housing, and schools decreased, health outcomes worsened, and, as a result, poverty rose.
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As those who could move away from the highways, generally affluent, white Americans, left for the newly developing suburban areas, the once vibrant and dense population centers of cities spread out into the surrounding areas. This period of migration is known as "White Flight". Minority populations were expressly forbidden from moving into suburban areas. The institutional practice of "redlining" further cemented this segregation of people, resources, and opportunities.
Lasting effects
Cities across the country are still segregated by highways and experience persistent harm—including health, financial, and social harm—from this racist history. Those who live within 600 feet of the highway have a higher incidence of childhood asthma and have an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, proximity to highways leads to decreased test scores and more behavioral issues and absences for children. Highways act as a physical barrier, separating communities and hindering access to jobs, health care, and other amenities. Thus, it is apparent that the decades of proximity to highways have led those predominantly Black and Brown communities to experience a self-reinforcing decrease in quality of life that is ongoing to this day.
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Yes, it happened in Albuquerque
It is a common misconception that this type of purposeful legal segregation did not occur in Albuquerque, but that is far from the truth. Like in the rest of the country, the highway was built through predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods that had no voice in the process. There was an intense debate on the highway passing through the heart of the city or "skipping" it, with the former triumphing in the end. The highway eventually led to the closure of Lincoln Junior High (the “Mexican/Black” school).
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In Albuquerque, there was explicit language in the housing deeds forbidding Asians and African Americans from owning or purchasing homes in large parts of the city, ensuring segregation of people and opportunity. This practice only began to soften in 1968, but after over a decade since I-25 was forcibly built through minority communities, the schism that the interstate purposely created and years of racist laws had caused so much damage that it could not correct itself with time, and persists to this day.
Highways keep us divided
​Where do we go from here?
Incremental steps to undo the mistakes of the past
With this project NMDOT is doubling down on the mistakes of the past and perpetuating the inequities that persist to this day. We should not be expanding the highway but rather taking incremental steps to undo its harm. This starts by stopping the expansion and investing instead in improving connections and pedestrian infrastructure, followed by a serious long-term plan to undo the effects of the highway on the community and to invest in transit.
