RICHMOND, Va. -- Nearly 70 years ago, city leaders voted to build Interstate 95 and and Interstate 64 through the historic Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia. The interstates divided the neighborhood and disrupted entire businesses and lives.
Richmond city officials are now seeking to make amends and reconnect historic Jackson Ward.
The city has scheduled a third community meeting about the Reconnect Jackson Ward Feasibility Study between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Hippodrome Theater on North 2nd Street.
The proposed plans include a block-sized bridge deck over Interstates 95 and 64 to reconnect Jackson Ward and Gilpin Court. The bridge is similar to the Kanawha Plaza above the Downtown Expressway.
The interstates divided the neighborhood once known as Black Wall Street and the Harlem of the South when it was built in the 1950s.
Reporting from Richmond Magazine revealed engineers at the time did not want to disrupt the suburbs, but instead, razed the neighborhood filled mostly with Black people and other racial minorities. The goal of the interstate system was to connect major U.S. cities.
The highway took 180 acres of city-owned land and 210 acres of privately-owned land including more than 700 homes and businesses, according to the report.
NEW THIS AM ON @CBS6: Once called the Harlem of the South, Jackson Ward and Gilpin Court may soon be reconnected with a block-sized bridge deck. Interstates 95/64 essentially cut the thriving historic Black neighborhood in half in the 1950s pic.twitter.com/Gz9ZBaxRUH
— Brendan King CBS 6 (@ImBrendanKing) June 29, 2022
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