Highway Robbery in Alabama

By Ben Jealous Imagine the neighborhood your family has lived in for more than 150 years being turned into a deteriorating flood zone. Now imagine the flooding was caused by the state. That is what is happening to the people of Elba, Alabama’s historic Black Shiloh community. Thanks to the construction of an elevated highway through the community in 2018, residents are watching their homes be destroyed by flooding caused by the highway project.& & “My house has already sunk two feet into the mud. I see my inheritance and my childrens’ American Dream being washed away and stolen,” says Pastor Timothy Williams. Pastor Williams is a reverend and the owner of a restaurant and cleaning business. Like many other Shiloh residents, his family has been on this land dating back to Reconstruction. Now he and others in the community see their generational wealth disappearing before their eyes from property devaluation as well as the physical destruction of their homes.& & Just eight feet away from Pastor Williams’ home, in the direction it is sinking, is a Southeast Gas Company natural gas pipeline. He has been told there is a possibility the sinking house could hit the gas line and...