DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) It has been 51 years since the first cars drove down a newly-constructed Durham Freeway, linking downtown Durham to the new Research Triangle Park. But the highway s construction came at a cost still felt today the freeway tore through homes, businesses, and up-ended lives.
The overwhelming majority of those up-ended lives were Black lives.
Anita Scott Neville thinks about her father every time she drives down Fayetteville Street, across the Durham Freeway overpass and onto Pettigrew Street. (My father) would pull up in his truck, park over here and say, Baby, watch the traffic, and we d go across the street here, Neville recalled as she pointed to block of Pettigrew where new upscale residences are now built with more on the way.