The neighborhoods of Highland Terrace and Liberty Park, about nine miles north of downtown Charleston, were literally cut in two back in the 1960s when I-26 was built going into town. Two decades later I-526, a beltway connecting the eastside Charleston suburbs with those on the west, was built, with a massive interchange plopped right down in the middle of the two beleaguered neighborhoods. Now there are plans to rebuild that interchange which would take an even bigger bite out of those neighborhoods.
This, alas, is a tale as old as time here in white supremacist America. There are examples far too numerous to mention throughout the cities of America of freeways built for the express purpose of dividing black neighborhoods and/or separating them from nearby white neighborhoods. Here in Atlanta, our city’s mayor (at the time) openly admitted that I-20 was built expressly for the purpose of separating white and black communities. Buttermilk Bottom, a historic black enclave just outside downtown Atlanta, was wiped out to make way for another freeway known to locals as the Downtown Connector. Lest you think this is just a Southern thing, it is not: I-579 in Pittsburgh was built to cut the Hill District, a black enclave just outside downtown, off from the downtown area. Other freeways obliterated black communities in St. Paul and Detroit.
Through the practice of eminent domain, the government has the ability to take one’s home in order to serve a compelling public interest, i. e. a new freeway or other such thing. Ostensibly they must offer you fair compensation, but in reality state DOTs are notorious for lowballing people, in many instances offering them pennies on the dollar for their property. Black communities are most frequently targeted for the simple reason that state DOTs can get away with it. These communities are typically poor and lack the resources of more affluent white communities who can lawyer up and challenge state DOTs in court and generally make life hell for them if they try to build freeways in those neighborhoods.
The Biden infrastructure plan that recently passed the Senate and now is working its way through the House was intended to repair, to the extent possible, the communities that were harmed by freeway building in America over the past half century. This proposal, however, represents not just a step but a giant leap in the opposite direction.
Under public pressure, the South Carolina DOT has made cosmetic improvements to the plan, which include a new park, a new community center, and a pedestrian bridge over I-26 to connect the two communities. But more must be done.
South Carolina DOT: You can do better. You must do better. You’ve got to do better.
Start by offering fair and just compensation to the impacted residents. Compensation that is reflective of actual market value, not just whatever numbers your appraisers come up with.
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