DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Highway 61 correspondence and documents, 1968-1974 | 1968-03-03 Fort Madison Human Rights Commission to the Iowa State Highway Commission Page 2

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Highway 61 correspondence and documents, 1968-1974

1968-03-03 Fort Madison Human Rights Commission to the Iowa State Highway Commission Page 2

-2-
As we understand it, the concepts were three in number:
1. Reconstructing Highway 61 along its present route except for a possible diagonal between Avenue H and Sixteenth Street and Avenue L and Eighteenth Street. 
2. Using Avenues E and F as one-way routes through the city and relocating Highway 61 from the ends of those streets to the present Highway 61 beyond West limits.
3. Constructing a bypass to the north.
Local residents rejected a plan to improve Highway 61 by widening 18th Street and Avenue L between 18th and 23rd Streets. Since the Commission seemingly, has polled these residents, we deem it necessary and advise that the residents of the area where the proposed concept is best for routing, be polled; and, we demand it, since the residents of the first area were given the right.
Let's say that this concept of routing Highway 61 through Fort Madison is the way the benefit ratio will pay off, or, to its fullest What would be done about new or other housing facilities for the residents of the affected area? 
Fort Madison has no low-cost housing units and Fort Madison residents in other areas, discriminate because of race, color and creed; therefore, unless you, and the City Council of Fort Madison can come up with homes, houses and apartments, we suggest you use another concept. The people who will be affected by the proposed concept are Negroes, Mexicans and, to a certain extent, low-income whites. Many of the families own their own homes, many are elderly and there are others whose income and resources have prevented them from doing anything but staying where they are. However, the fact that their supposed living and environmental conditions are unsatisfactory as far as Commission members and City officials are concerned, should not be the determining factor for making

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-2- As we understand it, the concepts were three in number: 1. Reconstructing Highway 61 along its present route except for a possible diagonal between Avenue H and Sixteenth Street and Avenue L and Eighteenth Street. 2. Using Avenues E and F as one-way routes through the city and relocating Highway 61 from the ends of those streets to the present Highway 61 beyond West limits. 3. Constructing a bypass to the north. Local residents rejected a plan to improve Highway 61 by widening 18th Street and Avenue L between 18th and 23rd Streets. Since the Commission seemingly, has polled these residents, we deem it necessary and advise that the residents of the area where the proposed concept is best for routing, be polled; and, we demand it, since the residents of the first area were given the right. Let's say that this concept of routing Highway 61 through Fort Madison is the way the benefit ratio will pay off, or, to its fullest What would be done about new or other housing facilities for the residents of the affected area? Fort Madison has no low-cost housing units and Fort Madison residents in other areas, discriminate because of race, color and creed; therefore, unless you, and the City Council of Fort Madison can come up with homes, houses and apartments, we suggest you use another concept. The people who will be affected by the proposed concept are Negroes, Mexicans and, to a certain extent, low-income whites. Many of the families own their own homes, many are elderly and there are others whose income and resources have prevented them from doing anything but staying where they are. However, the fact that their supposed living and environmental conditions are unsatisfactory as far as Commission members and City officials are concerned, should not be the determining factor for making