Paving the Way to Success:
How the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 Shaped the American Frontier

Racism and the IHS

According to Deborah N. Archer, national board president of the American Civil Liberties Union, the “highways often tore through once-vibrant communities, ripping the social fabric and inflicting psychological wounds on both those forced to leave their homes and those left behind.”

Archer claims this was intentional to combat court rulings which outlawed racial zoning and promoted integration. “In states around the country, highways disproportionately displaced and destroyed Black homes, churches, schools, and businesses, sometimes leveling entire communities,” she wrote.

Although many minority communities were uprooted by IHS construction, the real culprit was cost efficiency, argues Norman Garrick, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Connecticut. The cheapest land to buy was in poor communities, with mostly minority residents.

He acknowledges that some people had racial motivation, but that wasn’t the majority. “The bigger thing for me is not so much the motivation of planners in terms of being racist,” he said. “The bigger issue for me is that some of the tools, techniques, and algorithms we developed—refined in the 1950s—definitely had unintended consequences of supporting inequitable treatment of racial minorities and also of poor people and also supporting a totally car-dependent society.”

For example, the 1949 Housing Act permitted federal funds to remove decaying areas for urban development. Most homes destroyed were designated as “slums.” Although residents were displaced, the fact that most impoverished Americans have cars supports the long-term gains of the IHS. Furthermore, the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specifically designates funds to remove community barriers created by the IHS.