Minnesota’s racial divide:Will land bridge right Rondo’s wrongs?

In the historically Black neighbourhood of Rondo in Saint Paul, Minnesota, community leaders hope US President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will help promote ‘mobility justice’ 60 years after a highway destroyed people’s homes.

In the United States, few places have recently faced more tortuous battles to uproot the legacy of racism and historic inequality than the state of Minnesota. Despite its ranking as one of the best places to live in the country, its racial disparities are among the worst in the nation. Coming on the heels of a guilty verdict in the George Floyd murder case and the proposal by the administration of US President Joe Biden to invest $2.3 trillion in infrastructure, including in communities with a history of racial discrimination, a new project in the historically Black neighbourhood of Rondo in Saint Paul aspires to narrow the gap. Rondo was once home to 80 percent of the city’s Black community. But 60 years ago, the community and its culture were displaced when Interstate 94 was built. Constructed to connect the Great Lakes with the Great Plains, the highway sliced the neighbourhood in two, demolished 700 Black-owned homes and shuttered 300 Black-owned businesses.