Before NEPA, federal infrastructure dollars were used to raze vulnerable communities, particularly communities of color, which were given no say in the matter. I asked him to recount for me how a huge swath of "black Pompano" -- the predominantly African American part of town -- came to be razed. In an oft-cited case, builders in 1956 began constructing Interstate 94 with federal dollars through the predominantly black community of Rondo in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rondo was a vibrant, mostly black community that sprang up during the Great Migration of African Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South. It became an oasis of working and middle class families and one of the most dynamic black communities west of the Mississippi.

Source: CNN January 16, 2020 14:45 UTC