The Racist History Beneath Our Roads

I’m so excited to share today’s interview with Professor Deborah N. Archer about transportation history—my favorite subject! Professor Archer details how highways are a visceral emblem of white supremacy. We may often forget their origins, but as she reminds us in her new book, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality, “with transportation infrastructure, history is the present.”

Professor Archer is Associate Dean and Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, and she currently serves as President of the ACLU. Her scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, and she’s offered commentary for numerous outlets, including MSNBC, NPR, CBS, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.