One of the most significant policies that impacted formerly redlined areas was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. In many municipalities throughout the country — including many in Florida — the highways were constructed to have the biggest and most detrimental impact on Black neighborhoods. In the United States as a whole, this purposeful and racist objective led to the destruction of approximately 475,000 homes and the displacement of over 1 million people — mainly Black Americans. Additionally, nearly 90 percent of nation’s the low-income housing that was destroyed to build the interstate system was not replaced. The use of eminent domain, which allows the government to take private property and displace houses and businesses, further destroyed people’s ability to create generational wealth, as individuals and families were left to start over yet again. While eminent domain requires “just compensation” to permit the taking, governments often paid far below a fair value for the properties. Much of this highway construction was framed as “slum clearance” and reclamation: this perpetuated racist narratives about Black Americans, who had been forced into under-resourced neighborhoods by prior government policies.
The highways also contributed to and accelerated “white flight,” where white Americans with moderate to high wages left cities to live in suburbs. The loss of tax revenue and decline in local commerce led to an erosion of public resources, which exacerbated underfunding in predominantly Black neighborhoods.