Written by Neil Horsky, this column was originally published in the August 2015 issue of the Boston Compass

Art by Kokoro Bensonoff, “Dont Stop Me From Being Who I Am”

During the 1960s in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and the South End many homes were demolished and residents displaced to make way for Interstate 95, a.k.a. the Southwest Expressway. By the early 1970s a broad grassroots coalition of opposition to the Southwest Expressway and other planned highways through Roxbury, The Fenway, Cambridge, and Somerville successfully pressured the state government to cease urban highway construction in Massachusetts. Federal highway construction funds were reallocated to transform the existing 4-mile swath of rubble into the Southwest Corridor Park and the southern portion of the MBTA Orange Line, both of which opened in 1987.

On August 5th 1969 Operation Stop, a committee of the Boston Black United Front (BBUF), erected an unsanctioned Community Information House on the corner of Columbus Avenue and Ruggles Street in Roxbury, near a planned highway interchange. The Community Information House served as a regional hub for the dissemination of information about highway construction and community impacts, and for the organization of opposition to the highways. BBUF co-chairman Chuck Turner stated at the dedication two days later, “We of Operation Stop say ‘these highways will not be built through our community!’ The construction of this Community Information House as the first use of this community land for community purposes demonstrates our position of no more roads over people. This land is ours and we will use it for our own purposes.”

The Southwest Corridor marked the first time federal funds were diverted from a highway project to public transit, setting a precedent for other US cities. “Highway Revolts” have occurred in cities throughout America and worldwide, sparing countless neighborhoods from the wrecking ball and the ill social, economic, environmental and public health effects of highway intrusion.