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THE YALE LAW JOURNAL Volume 82, Number 2 December 1972 Copyright 1972 by The Yale Law Journal Co., Inc. Reprinted by Permission "In the Path of Progress: NOTE Federal Highway Relocation Assurances" by Peter W. Sly Nashville, Tennessee, famous for country and western music, is also renowned as a dramatic example of "a white road through black bedrooms." As Interstate 40 approaches Nashville, it swings suddenly in a wide loop, avoid- ing the downtown area, but passing north through what was once the center of Nashville's black community. Interstate 40 eliminated twenty-seven apartment buildings and 626 homes in the black community. In vain, the community appealed to the federal courts. Nashville's black community found itself in the path of progress. Nashville is not alone. In city after city, federally funded highway plans to traverse residential areas have been challenged in the courts. Congress has responded to the problem of residential dislocation by passing a series of acts designed to cushion the impact of urban highway construction. In particular, it has been concerned with the problem of relocation, and has passed two acts designed to insure that highway displacees are adequately rehoused. Unfortunately, implementation of the relocation acts has been ineffective. As a result, construction of urban highways continues to frus- trate the national goal of providing every American with a decent home. This Note will analyze the role the courts and the Federal Highway Admin- istration (FNWA) have played, and could play, in implementing the relocation acts. The Note's focus will be on relocation of low-income households. It will first discuss these acts in the context of Congress' attempt to reconcile national housing and highway priorities and then analyze the housing market effects of urban highway displacement on low-income groups. Following an analysis of FHWA relocation practices, it will be argued that full implemen- tation of the relocation acts requires that the FHWA minimize the dislocating e~fects of highway displacement on the housing market by constructing new hquslng units to replace those demolished for highways. Finally, it will be s~ggested that complete implementation of these acts cannot be achieved unless timely judicial procedures are provided for relocation litigation. *Ail footnotes have been deleted from this publication. III-1