BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Joined by Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Wednesday championed a $14.5 million federal grant that will be used to revitalize Birmingham’s 4th Avenue Historic District.
Once a thriving cultural and business center for the Black community, 4th Avenue District in downtown Birmingham was changed forever in the 1960s with the construction of Interstate 65.
A frequent occurrence for Black communities across the country during that time, the construction of I-65 cut directly through the 4th Avenue District, and replaced its two-way streets with one-way streets.
Standing in front of the historic Carver Theatre on the corner of 4th Avenue and 17th Street, Buttigieg said that the grant was an effort to “put right things that have been done wrong in the past.”
“In the 1960s and 1970s, two monumental infrastructure decisions began to divide, burden and disempower this neighborhood: the construction of I-65, and the decision to convert 4th Avenue to a one-way street so that it could rapidly shunt people in and out of this city in ways that isolated a once-thriving main street from that broader community,” Buttigieg said.
“Those decisions were felt most acutely by the Black community in Birmingham. That has happened again and again around the country, and it would be foolish to characterize that as a coincidence. Choices displaced Black homes and businesses, and created physical barriers that still keep people apart, still limit people’s ability to walk safely.”
The $14.5 million grant, which comes from the 2021 Infrastructure Bill, will be used to restore the district’s original two-way street, while also revitalizing 15 blocks along the corridor. The grant will also be used to equip the district with more modern features to better accommodate bicyclists and foot traffic.
Woodfin said that during his tenure as mayor, he had seen countless vehicle wrecks along the avenue particularly near Carver Theatre. The revitalization project, Woodfin said, would be a significant step toward reducing the city’s car dependency.
“It will take us some time to undo this infrastructure and redesign our streets and systems, yet this project is a major step in safer streets,” Woodfin said.
Sewell, the only member of Congress from Alabama to vote for the Infrastructure Bill, spoke to the damage caused to Alabama’s Black communities through infrastructure projects designed to run through Black neighborhoods, as was done in Montgomery as well.
“For far too many communities, especially African-American communities, decisions of the past have created barriers between people and opportunity, and we see that right here on Black main street in Birmingham,” Sewell said.
“We know that the historic 4th Avenue business district has a very rich legacy of African American ingenuity and entrepreneurship. We also know that we’ve seen the crippling effects of infrastructure policy that has sought to divide us. Our people deserve better.”
Following the press conference, Alabama Daily News asked Buttigieg whether expanding I-65 – which has been adamantly called for by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, and pledged by former President Donald Trump – was on the short list for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“I can’t speak to anything that’s in the interstate plans right now; we would be surprised if we didn’t get more grants related to the interstate vision for Alabama coming in, and we’ll evaluate them as they come,” Buttigieg told ADN.
“We want to make sure that we’re not repeating some of the mistakes of the past, but there are times when it is the right thing to do, to expand a highway, it just has to be justified.”
