United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Jackson, Miss. Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a multimillion-dollar improvement project to 1.5 miles of what will be named Medgar Evers Boulevard.
According to a report from the Clarionledger.com, the project is funded through a $20 million grant from Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Discretionary Grant program (RAISE), launched in 2021.
The road's namesake, Evers, was a prominent civil rights activist in Jackson and served as the NAACP's first field secretary until he was assassinated in June 1963.
Work will include installing sidewalks and new streetlamps, repairing roads, building medians and replacing sewer and water drainage infrastructure along the road. At the ceremony, Buttigieg said those improvements would be necessary to reconnect the area to the rest of modern Jackson and spur economic development in the area.
"As we bear the moral weight of our inheritance, it feels a little bit strange to be talking about streetlights and ports, and highway funding and some of the other day to day transportation needs that we're here to do something about," Buttigieg said. "Equitable transportation has always been one of the core commitments, and for that reason has also always been one of the most important battlegrounds of the struggle for racial and economic justice and civil rights in this country."
Everette, who is Evers' daughter, thanked both Buttigieg for his and others’ work in Washington D.C. and in Congress to secure the funds for the project.
"It’s about raising the bar of excellence for the community, to have pride in the infrastructure that starts from the very core that goes on to beautification that goes on to the best pride in the world for the communities," Everette said at the ceremony. "I just wanted to say thank you very much."
Buttigieg added that throughout his time visiting Mississippi communities throughout the last few days, he sees more and more areas that will need to be addressed to establish more equitable transportation, which he said is essential to growing an area.
"Better transportation can mean better opportunities for small business and for families," he said. "Good transportation can lead directly to economic opportunity in the same way that lack of access to transportation can cut people off from opportunity. We're here to make sure that transportation connects, that it doesn't divide."
The Medgar Evers Boulevard Project is slated to be completed by 2026.
Source: Clarionledger.com, Wlbt.com
