A new light-rail train line in St. Paul is kicking up bad memories of when the interstate was built in the middle of the black neighborhood, essentially shattering the community.

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When the Rev. George Davis learned the government was coming to take his family’s home to make room for a shiny new interstate, he told his loved ones he’d defend 304 Rondo Avenue with a shotgun.

But Davis was old, about 80, and his wife Bertha was blind by then. When the police came one day in 1956, he went quietly. And soon Rondo — St. Paul’s only black neighborhood — was torn in two, dozens of homes and businesses leveled.

Historically, major public works projects often uproot black and other minority neighborhoods the hardest, leaving communities decimated and longtime residents with little or no compensation. Now, just as what used to be Rondo is finally starting to rebuild itself thanks to new businesses and strong community groups, another transportation mega-project is ticketed to come blazing through the same neighborhood.

It’s a $1 billion, 11-mile light rail line that’s dredging up both bad memories and new fears that history will repeat itself.

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