Where Did They Go?: 35W and the Minneapolis Southside
Team: Greg Donofrio, Associate Professor of Heritage Studies and Public History (HSPH); Michael Corey, HSPH student and Geospatial, Technical and Data Lead / Associate Director for Mapping Prejudice; Dr. Ernest Lloyd, HSPH Adjunct Faculty and Community Collaborator
Program: Heritage Studies and Public History
One in twenty Minneapolis city residents was displaced by freeway construction between 1960 and 1968. They were disproportionately African American. Historians and policy makers now widely agree that Black neighborhoods were targeted for interstate highway construction, while White communities reaped the benefits. What remained largely unknown, until now, is where people went when displaced and how their experiences were shaped by racism and privilege. When I-35W was built, there were no local, state, or federal laws against racial discrimination in the buying or renting of a home.
A painstaking analysis of 209 households whose homes were demolished for I-35W shows that, in the aftermath of displacement, White, Asian, and unidentified residents spread throughout the city and expanding suburbs. White households moved to census tracts that were almost exclusively white, in contrast to the integrated Southside where they had previously been living. The mobility of displaced Black residents was constrained by racial discrimination. With only two exceptions that could be identified, Black residents relocated to neighborhoods on the east side of the freeway, within a mile of their previous homes, to neighborhoods that were already integrated. Interstate 35W fortified what had historically been a racial dividing line in South Minneapolis.
Keywords: racial housing discrimination, privilege, freeway construction, displacement
Funders: This research was supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation; Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs; Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, Office of the Vice President for Research; University of Minnesota Imagine Grant; and Liberal Arts Engagement Hub in the College of Liberal Arts.
Other Collaborators: Mapping Prejudice
