BALTIMORE — The "Highway to Nowhere" in West Baltimore was originally developed with racial tensions to divide neighborhoods.
This week city, state and federal leaders announced plans to undo some of the damage that was caused by those racist policies.
Congressman Kwesi Mfume, Mayor Brandon Scott, Senator Bill Carson and other local, state and federal leaders were in attendance to help make the announcement about new funding to redevelop one of Baltimore’s most troubled communities.
“This road remains a safety hazard as well as a physical and symbolic barrier to community progress. Taking out a large scabble of West Baltimore that was once very vibrant,” Mfume said.
More than 50 years ago, leaders during that time in Baltimore City decided to create the Highway to Nowhere in West Baltimore, destroying dozens of businesses and displacing hundreds of Black families.
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Sonia Eaddy, president of the Poppleton Community Association, said she remembers growing up and hearing about the many families being displaced because of these racist policies.
“I hear the stories from my dad all the time even to my old pastor, his family was one that was displaced out of the 500 block of Carrolton Avenue,” Eaddy said.
During construction back then, 971 homes and 62 businesses were revised, one school was leveled and thousands of people were displaced in the neighborhoods near the highway between West Mulberry and West Franklin Street.
“We are talking about a highway that was built to nowhere in what was a thriving middle-class Black community in West Baltimore,” Scott said.
And instead of the highway being a positive addition to help further develop transportation in the area, it was halted and went nowhere. However, this week thanks to bipartisan support on a local, state, and federal level, leaders have been granted the funds to start undoing this damage.
Many people like Mayor Scott are confident this was part of the reason for the economic downfall in West Baltimore.
“When you take out that kind of wealth, when you take out those family-owned businesses, when you take out the people that were doctors and teachers and lawyers and you purposefully not only displace them and remove them, but really disgrace their whole neighborhood. What else do you expect to happen,” Scott said.
Thanks to the infrastructure investment and jobs act leaders will be using 2-million dollars in funding to start redeveloping the highway to nowhere all in effort to reconnect communities divided so long ago.
“A testament of how you can continue to push races, policies, and practice and turn it into once again, a thriving neighborhood with public transportation, public parks, arts, all of the things that we know this neighborhood once had. It’s the start to a one and a lifetime chance to undo the mistakes of the past,” Scott said.
