In 1944, a government report recommended that state and local authorities purchase needed lands for highways that would "aid in the efficient assembly and appropriate redevelopment of large tracts of blighted urban lands." As the Interstate Highway Act was being written, the American Association of State Highway Officials sent lobbyists to D.C. to influence the legislation. Alfred Johnson, the group's executive director, later recalled that "some city officials ex- pressed the view in the mid-1950s that the urban Interstates would give them a good opportunity to get rid of the local n----rtown. "

— City Limits by Megan Kimble (Page 42)