site background
Historically, it was not uncommon for the production of highways to displace underprivileged communities of color. According to the former US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx (2013 - 2017), during the first 20 years of the federal interstate system the construction of highways displaced over one million Americans, most of which were low-income people of color (Pyke, 2016).
Georgetown and Cuba were two lively black neighborhoods in Salisbury prior to the 1930s. Located so close to one another, they essentially acted as one collective black community in Salisbury. In the 1930s, Route 13 was built right through this community. In the 1950s, another highway (Route 50) was proposed to go somewhere through the city. Not surprisingly, a direct path through these black neighborhoods, perpendicular to Route 13, was deemed by city officials to be the least disruptive route for the highway to take. Twice in 20 years, residents of this community were forced to move so a highway could replace their neighborhoods. A well-known and respected local historian, Richard Cooper, remarked that the highway would “clear out the residue of this problem area,” insinuating that Georgetown and Cuba were problem sites in Salisbury. Cooper worked as a land surveyor, so he had professional interest in the construction and placement of roads. He claimed that with this highway displacing these neighborhoods, “Salisbury would once again come out smelling like a rose,” (Cooper, 1991).
Although this issue doesn’t relate to the pollution and toxics discussed in the other case studies, it remains an environmental justice issue. Environmental injustice is found in urban design when access to certain amenities or resources is restricted only to affluent white communities. It is also found when communities of color are displaced by unfair infrastructure design, forced to move and live in closer proximity to toxic industrial sites (see the summaries of the Landfill and Perdue Slaughterhouse for more information regarding where Georgetown residents may have relocated). In the midst of city expansion and interstate construction, certain areas are often sacrificed. Although other options exist, laying roads directly through low-income communities is often vouched as the most viable option. It is no coincidence that the communities that are continually preserved, under the guise of having higher property values, are historically white. Not only are black communities not valued the same as white ones, but they are subject to being uprooted at any moment. Black residents are disenfranchised for the benefit of white communities in the same geographical area.
what is being done?
This case study is unique because there are no solutions. Once a highway is built, there is no going back. Since the completion of Route 50 through the Georgetown and Cuba area, road construction has only continued to disenfranchise black communities in Salisbury.
Decades after the construction of Route 50 through Georgetown, a Route 50 bypass through Jersey Heights was proposed. Jersey Heights is also a predominantly black neighborhood (see the summary of Plymouth Tube Co. for more information regarding the surrounding area of Jersey Heights). In the 1990s the community was presumed to be “99 percent African-American,” (King, 1999). Some of the residents of Jersey Heights were the same people displaced when the original Route 50 was built through Georgetown. One Jersey Heights resident, Ann Church, was forced to move out of Georgetown as a child. When interviewed by the Baltimore Sun in 1994, she stated, "Just as I was displaced by Route 50 as a 9-year-old, my 9-year-old daughter will see her all-black neighborhood singled out as a highway construction site."
Although the community and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland protested the construction of the bypass, their efforts were futile. They filed a complaint in 1997 against federal, state, and local officials regarding the proposed route for the bypass, which was taken to court in 1998. The court ultimately dismissed these complaints, not due to their lack of validity, but because they were filed a few years too late. According to the law, a complaint regarding the bypass was required to have been filed "within 3 years of the discovery of its manifestation." The court insisted that the plaintiffs "should have been aware" of the unjust nature of this bypass by 1989, dismissing their case as simply being too late. The unfair character of this decision was not lost on every judge. Judge King, in his concurring statement, emphasized the historically "shabby" treatment of Salisbury residents of color, remarking that many Jersey Heights residents had already relocated after being displaced by the original highways. According to Judge King, the black residents of this area were not given the opportunity to file a complaint on time. There were a few alternate options for the route of the bypass. He pointed out the biased treatment of residents nearby various routes, stating that "Caucasian residents who lived in the area surrounding Alternate 2 — the more northerly route farther away from Jersey Heights — received individual notice about project planning, and subsequently raised timely objections to that proposed route. The residents of Jersey Heights, however, received no individual notice, and thus were unable to timely object to Alternate 4," (King, 1999).
Regardless of what Judge King believed, the decision had been made. Over a decade later, the installation of the Route 50 bypass through Jersey Heights was completed. The bypass displaced Jersey Heights residents fifty years after Routes 13 and 50 initially displaced the residents of Georgetown.
Decades after the construction of Route 50 through Georgetown, a Route 50 bypass through Jersey Heights was proposed. Jersey Heights is also a predominantly black neighborhood (see the summary of Plymouth Tube Co. for more information regarding the surrounding area of Jersey Heights). In the 1990s the community was presumed to be “99 percent African-American,” (King, 1999). Some of the residents of Jersey Heights were the same people displaced when the original Route 50 was built through Georgetown. One Jersey Heights resident, Ann Church, was forced to move out of Georgetown as a child. When interviewed by the Baltimore Sun in 1994, she stated, "Just as I was displaced by Route 50 as a 9-year-old, my 9-year-old daughter will see her all-black neighborhood singled out as a highway construction site."
Although the community and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland protested the construction of the bypass, their efforts were futile. They filed a complaint in 1997 against federal, state, and local officials regarding the proposed route for the bypass, which was taken to court in 1998. The court ultimately dismissed these complaints, not due to their lack of validity, but because they were filed a few years too late. According to the law, a complaint regarding the bypass was required to have been filed "within 3 years of the discovery of its manifestation." The court insisted that the plaintiffs "should have been aware" of the unjust nature of this bypass by 1989, dismissing their case as simply being too late. The unfair character of this decision was not lost on every judge. Judge King, in his concurring statement, emphasized the historically "shabby" treatment of Salisbury residents of color, remarking that many Jersey Heights residents had already relocated after being displaced by the original highways. According to Judge King, the black residents of this area were not given the opportunity to file a complaint on time. There were a few alternate options for the route of the bypass. He pointed out the biased treatment of residents nearby various routes, stating that "Caucasian residents who lived in the area surrounding Alternate 2 — the more northerly route farther away from Jersey Heights — received individual notice about project planning, and subsequently raised timely objections to that proposed route. The residents of Jersey Heights, however, received no individual notice, and thus were unable to timely object to Alternate 4," (King, 1999).
Regardless of what Judge King believed, the decision had been made. Over a decade later, the installation of the Route 50 bypass through Jersey Heights was completed. The bypass displaced Jersey Heights residents fifty years after Routes 13 and 50 initially displaced the residents of Georgetown.
additional resources
- Jersey Heights Neighborhood Association v. Glendening Court Decision (1999)
- Planned Salisbury bypass faulted as discriminatory (Jenson, 1994)
- Top infrastructure official explains how America used highways to destroy black neighborhoods (Pyke, 2016)
- Richard W. Cooper, Salisbury in Times Gone By. (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1991).
- http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/wicomico_river/chapter_four.htm#_ednref10
- https://theclio.com/tour/2090