Federal Highway Act Sociology
Zac Chambers
July 14th, 2016
Sociology 230
Final Project Rough Draft
Federal Highway Act of 1956 and Black Poverty
This paper will analyze the extent to which the unforeseen consequences of the 1956 Federal Highway act negatively affected minority groups in the United States Citizens, specifically black neighborhoods. Since the construction of the highways took 35 years, the focus of this report will begin with the passing of the Highway act and last until the highway’s completion (1991) in order to include the full effects of negligent planning. This paper will discuss the displacement of citizens from their homes inside the United States, and attempt to examine the remnants of redlining in the U.S.
The Federal Highway Act of 1956 was passed
…show more content…
The parties that passed these acts had the best intentions in mind, and intended to improve life in America. And on the larger scale, these acts were leaps forward, and shaped America into the country that it is today. Sweeping generalizations aside, however, there are several cases in which the Federal Highway Act actually ruined people’s lives, rather than improving them.
These Federal Highways, while brilliant in theory, were poorly planned. They were based off of the German Autobahns which Eisenhower had seen during World War Two, and were streamlined to optimize transportation time to all parts of America. Many of these highways were not planned out completely, and were simply drawn on the map where they would go, not realizing what was already there until construction had begun
…show more content…
In Miami, an exchange of Interstate 95 took up 40 blocks of residential businesses and destroyed 10,000 homes and businesses (Blas). This is exactly what the Adequate Housing Act had guaranteed would not happen. The homes that were not directly destroyed by the highway decreased in value, as the constant noise and lights of the highway kept residents up at night (Blas). Many people had their front lawns seized by the government, with little to no compensation (Blas). One novelist, Homer Bigart, stated that the highways had “sent great rivers of concrete creeping like lava through residential neighborhoods and commercial areas, dislocating families, schools, churches, and
How Did The Interstate Highway System Change America
407 Words | 2 PagesThe Interstate Highway System
The 1619 Project And Its Impact On American History And Society
714 Words | 3 PagesThe initiative challenges the idea of American exceptionalism by critically reviewing the economic, political, and cultural mechanisms that have sustained racial disparity. It reveals the ongoing consequences of colonialism and racial oppression, such as discriminatory policies, wealth inequality, and systematic racism, by emphasizing the experiences and viewpoints of oppressed communities. The 1619 Project seeks to challenge the prevalent historical narrative and open a discussion about colonialism's continued effects on modern-day America. According to one of the project's articles by Matthew Desmond, continuing residential segregation and unequal access to opportunities are the effect of racial discrimination in housing regulations, showing how colonialism and racial injustice still have an impact. The 1619 Project also questions the idea of American development as a linear path, focusing instead on the cycle of history and the deep foundations of inequity.
Broader Ribbons Across The Land Essay
1073 Words | 5 PagesThe experience of the FTMC and command of Allied forces in Africa was enough for Eisenhower during his presidency in 1953 to push for a building of an interstate highway system (Snyder). In 1956, Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act which guaranteed full funding for the soon to be National Highway Defense system project (Snyder). The results of the NHDS was significant. The NHDS provided 50,000 miles of road which spanned across the nation (Snyder). This allowed for a sense of unity among the nation because everyone now seemed connected, thanks to the creation of better roads.
African-Americans Affected By The Great Migration
100 Words | 1 PagesThe “Black Great Migration” represents one of the greatest social, political, and economic alterations in American history.
North Carolina Twentieth Century Analysis
481 Words | 2 PagesNorth Carolina began the twentieth century in similar circumstances to the last century: economically, educationally and socially behind much of the rest of the country. Economically, the old bastions of textiles, light manufacturing and farming were still providing low wages for much of the workforce, precluding the state from making expensive ventures to innovate. Educationally, many children worked, making education difficult particularly in rural areas. Thanks to a heavily partisan political situation, there were a lot of restrictive rules affecting African American people in the early years of the twentieth century. To see how these factors change, a random selection of three decades was chosen.
The Pros And Cons Of Reparations To African Americans
888 Words | 4 PagesJiovanni Lopez Toni Fannin English 122-5504 27 April 2023 Will Reparations be Enough The question of whether or not the United States government should pay some form of reparations to African Americans is a complicated problem, with strong arguments on both sides. Including arguments from Steven Dubner which he mentioned in “The Pros and Cons of Reparations” podcast. “On one hand, many argue that the United States government has systematically created barriers for African Americans, such as redlining, which denied them access to home ownership and the ability to create generational wealth. As a result, many Black Americans have been unable to accumulate wealth for generations, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and inequality.”
Summary Of The Condemnation Of Blackness
650 Words | 3 PagesProfessor Khalil Girban Muhammad gave an understanding of the separate and combined influences that African Americans and Whites had in making of present day urban America. Muhammad’s lecture was awakening, informative and true, he was extremely objective and analytical in his ability to scan back and forth across the broad array of positive and negative influences. Muhammad described all the many factors during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries since the abolition of slavery and also gave many examples of how blackness was condemned in American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Professor Muhammad was able to display how on one hand, initial limitations made blacks seem inferior, and various forms of white prejudice made things worse. But on the other hand, when given the same education and opportunities, there are no differences between black and white achievements and positive contributions to society.
Race Discrimination In Baltimore Essay
446 Words | 2 PagesAfter recent protests in Baltimore, Badger (2016) explores the nature of policies set in the early 1900’s that have shaped the city of Baltimore, and that continue to have an effect on their quality of life. Actions such as redlining and urban renewal have perpetuated poverty and segregation in the same neighborhoods today as 75 year ago. This article calls attention to the effect of system-wide race discrimination in Baltimore, and how policies create a cyclical link between race and disadvantage in communities. Racial disparities across many subsystems have created a system of race discrimination in which it’s emergent effects implant uber discrimination into our culture and institutions (Reskin, 2012). Reskin (2012) explains how emergent discrimination intensifies disparities within each subsystem and creates systems of race discrimination.
Black Men Stereotypes
1714 Words | 7 PagesOne way in which this fear is implemented is by increasing the inequality between races. Urban planning, in particular, has played a large role in this as it has historically advantaged some people while putting others at a disadvantage. From gentrification and racial disparities in law enforcement to practices such as blockbusting and redlining, it is apparent that policies and decisions made by city planners were not designed to benefit everyone equally. Particularly the Housing Act of 1949 and the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Both of these policies displaced residents through the use of eminent domain and condemnation laws (Budds, “How Urban Design Perpetuates Racial Inequality – And What We Can Do About It”).
Civil Rights In The Late 19th And Early 20th Century
279 Words | 2 PagesIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a large portion of Americans were restricted from civil and political rights. In American government in Black and White (Second ed.), Paula D. McClain and Steven C. Tauber and Vanna Gonzales’s power point slides, the politics of race and ethnicity is described by explaining the history of discrimination and civil rights progress for selective groups. Civil rights were retracted from African Americans and Asian Americans due to group designation, forms of inequality, and segregation. These restrictions were combatted by reforms such as the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, etc. Although civil and political
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth Analysis
1172 Words | 5 PagesThe Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a documentary that explores public housing in Saint Louis, Missouri, in particular the history of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex. Pruitt-Igoe was a public housing project billed as the perfect solution in the early 1950s, to solve the problems of slums in Saint Louis and to bring people back into a city that had seen a population decline from previous years. Saint Louis was an ageing city desperate to regain their postwar prominence as a bustling city, but faced many challenges pertaining to the racial makeup of the segregated city and the loss of many jobs to suburban areas. Many whites had begun to participate in what is now referred to as “white flight”, or the migration of middle class whites to
Gentrification All Bad Justin Davidson Analysis
1841 Words | 8 PagesOn a normal scale, measuring the association between two subjects, one would assume gentrification and school segregation are not related in any sense. In fact, most would argue that school segregation ended in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education. This assumption would be incorrect. Deep within the American society lies a new kind of segregation that is neither talked about nor dealt with. Segregation is a result of gentrification—the buying and renovation of houses in deteriorated neighborhoods by upper-income families or individuals—thus, improving property values but often displacing low-income families.
Police Brutality Annotated Bibliography Summary
1391 Words | 6 PagesAnnotated Bibliography Books Dudley, William, et al., editors. Police Brutality. D.L. Bender, 1991. • Police Brutality gives information on how police brutality is a widespread issue in the United States and explains different controversies and cases that relate to police brutality. • The editors of this book include activists and nonfiction authors who provide reliable information on what happened during different incidences of police brutality and the viewpoints and controversies that come with it.
Essay On Housing Discrimination
1517 Words | 7 PagesPublic Policy on Housing Discrimination Executive Summary Housing discrimination and segregation have long been present in the American society (Lamb and Wilk). The ideals of public housing and home buying have always been intertwined with the social and political transformation of America, especially in terms of segregation and inequality of capital and race (Wyly, Ponder and Nettking). Nevertheless, the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and in Baltimore due to alleged police misconduct resulting to deaths of black men brought light on the impoverished conditions in urban counties in America (Lemons). This brings questions to the effectiveness of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in devising more fair-housing facilities (Jost).
Robert Moses's Positive Effects On Society
571 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the course of history, Robert Moses, a renowned city planner, impacted America through his innovative ideas regarding transportation and infrastructures. In comparison to other engineers Moses possessed some unorthodox methods and styles. Between the 20s until the 60s, Moses’s work made various positive and negative effects on society. Some positive effects include: creating jobs and connecting different cities and areas. Regardless of Moses’s positive effects, some negative effects include: the loss of people’s homes through eviction and Moses’s refusal to build mass transit systems.
More about Federal Highway Act Sociology
How Did The Interstate Highway System Change America
407 Words | 2 PagesThe 1619 Project And Its Impact On American History And Society
714 Words | 3 PagesBroader Ribbons Across The Land Essay
1073 Words | 5 PagesAfrican-Americans Affected By The Great Migration
100 Words | 1 PagesNorth Carolina Twentieth Century Analysis
481 Words | 2 PagesThe Pros And Cons Of Reparations To African Americans
888 Words | 4 PagesSummary Of The Condemnation Of Blackness
650 Words | 3 PagesRace Discrimination In Baltimore Essay
446 Words | 2 PagesBlack Men Stereotypes
1714 Words | 7 PagesCivil Rights In The Late 19th And Early 20th Century
279 Words | 2 PagesThe Pruitt-Igoe Myth Analysis
1172 Words | 5 PagesGentrification All Bad Justin Davidson Analysis
1841 Words | 8 PagesPolice Brutality Annotated Bibliography Summary
1391 Words | 6 PagesEssay On Housing Discrimination
1517 Words | 7 PagesRobert Moses's Positive Effects On Society
571 Words | 3 Pages