Say Something Real
By Michelle Bryant
Michelle Bryant
As the host of a “Say Something Real” on WNOV 860AM/106.5FM, I recently had an opportunity to talk with President Joe Biden. Visiting Milwaukee, on the heels of a successful State of the Union address, Biden was in town to tout the work his administration. He has undertaken an issue, that many in the Black community know all too well, “Jim Crow Transportation Infrastructure.” These are not his words, but mine.
As reported by the NPR article, “A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways,” planners of the interstate highway system, which began to take shape after the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, routed some highways directly, and sometimes purposefully, through Black and brown communities. However, like many of my relatives, there are African-Americans that can recount the destruction and destabilization of Black neighborhoods, families, and their economy. They didn’t need to read about it, they lived it.
When Congress passed the Federal Aid Highway Act, it was considered the largest public works program in our nation’s history. The goal was to connect more than 40 states capital cities by constructing 41,000 miles of highway roads. Cities with populations of 50,000 or more were targeted and President Dwight Eisenhower deemed the infrastructure project “essential to the national interest”.
Quietly, many believe another plan was underfoot…deepened segregation of the races. Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation indicates that more than 475.000 households were displaced due to these highway systems. Over a twenty year period that ended in the 1970’s, the federal government put more than a million people in harm’s way. Overwhelmingly, those people were Black and subjected to environmental, economic, and health challenges. Many lost their homes to eminent domain, lost access to grocery stores, critical goods and services, employment and the ability to recycle money in their own neighborhoods.
Unsightly barrier walls, initially described as noise reduction and cosmetic necessities, served a dual purpose. This infrastructure served as “dividers,” separating Black neighborhoods from their white counterparts. Highways became encampment backdrops and boxed in Black residents. They served to limit every aspect of their lives. More than 50 years later, President Biden came to town to say his administration is working to do something about it.
Making a commitment to put forward $3.3 billion in infrastructure aid, Biden came to Milwaukee to discuss the $36 million earmarked for our city. In our on-air chat, Biden discussed the need to address historic wrongs. The funding will be used to create more cohesive neighborhoods, public spaces, and pedestrian friendly walkways, in 40 states across the nation.
New transit routes will be funded to increase access and close spatial rifts, created by decades old discriminatory policies.
In talking with President Biden, one thing was crystal clear. The choices we make in November’s presidential election will either continue to keep the status quo in place, return us to an ugly period in this nation’s history, or continue the work of tearing down divisive racial and social barriers. I choose the latter.