Interstate Highways

From 1956-1970, Cleveland officials began implementing the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 to expand the region's highway system and to connect burgeoning suburbs with urban business centers. Highway construction, however, had possibly unintended consequences. Highway officials ran the new interstates of I-71, I-77, and I-90 through Cleveland neighborhoods. Long-time residents often chose to move out of the city to suburbs reached by the new highways. More whites moved, however, than blacks and most of the city’s African American population remained in Cleveland. Highways do more than link communities. Highways built in post-World War II Cleveland displaced people and undermined the stability of the neighborhoods they ostensibly connected.