Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
This is not a picture one would have seen during the battles over Memphis’s Overton Park. When planning for Interstate 40’s route through Memphis began in the 50’s, one could have found Blacks in parts of that park only on Tuesdays; the park was for Whites only on other days. An urban oasis near downtown, largely surrounded by White residential areas, this large park held a zoo, golf course, and attractive forests and grounds – a municipal treasure not far from the commercial area. It was bisected by a bus road that was proposed as the route for I-40 to pass through Memphis. Circumferential roads were also planned. Just as I-40 in Nashville would disrupt an established Black community, the circumferential roads were routed through largely Black residential and commercial areas. But constructing the route through Memphis and Overton Park would disrupt White residential areas as well as this – at the time – essentially White urban playground.
Disciplines
Administrative Law | Law | Law and Race
Recommended Citation
Peter L. Strauss,
Citizens to Preserve Overton Park – Race-Inflected Below Its Surface,
Yale J. on Reg. Notice & Comment, July 16, 2020
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4817