In 1953 and 1961, two highways cut through Boston's Chinatown against the residents' will, displacing hundreds of families, in order to alleviate traffic downtown and give white people living in suburbs the convenience of commuting to the city by car.

The highways displaced far more than houses. Clean air, for one, is long gone. In 2018, Boston Chinatown still registered the highest level of vehicle emissions in Massachusetts.

This incident is not an isolated event for communities of color, but one example of widespread environmental racism. It highlights the continued exposure of America's structural racism that places a disproportionate burden of environmental hazard on people of color, in the context of the warming planet and worsening environment.