Our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. From collapsing highways to pockmarked roads to unreliable subway systems, the need to rebuild is manifest. But as Deborah N. Archer warns in Dividing Lines, we must not repair our infrastructure without first coming to grips with the troubling history behind it. Archer shows that when government-sanctioned racism was finally deemed illegal after the successes of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, officials across the country turned to infrastructure to protect segregation. Highways could not be run through Black neighborhoods based on the race of their residents, but those neighborhoods' lower property values--a legacy of racial exclusion--could justify their destruction. A new suburb could not be for "whites only," but planners could refuse to extend sidewalks from Black communities into white ones. With immense authority, Archer uncovers the animus built into our everyday environments and explains why existing Civil Rights law is insufficient to address the challenges we face today.
Our nation's transportation system is crumbling: highways are collapsing, roads are pockmarked, and commuter trains are unreliable. But as acclaimed scholar and ACLU president Deborah Archer warns in Dividing Lines, before we can think about rebuilding and repairing, we must consider the role race has played in transportation infrastructure, from the early twentieth century and into the present day. As Archer demonstrates, the success of the Civil Rights movement and the fall of Jim Crow in the 1960s did not mean the end of segregation. The status quo would not be so easily dismantled. With state-sanctioned racism no longer legal, officials across the country--not just in the South--turned to transportation infrastructure to keep Americans divided. A wealthy white neighborhood could no longer be "protected" by racial covenants and segregated shops, but a multilane road, with no pedestrian crossings, could be built along its border to make it difficult for people from a lower-income community to visit. Highways could not be routed through Black neighborhoods based on the race of their residents, but those neighborhoods' lower property values?a legacy of racial exclusion?could justify their destruction. A new suburb could not be for "whites only," but planners could refuse to extend sidewalks from Black communities into white ones. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including interviews with people who now live in the shadow of hi