Jamil Jude, who directed the new play “The Highwaymen,” is not saying you should try to avoid using the section of Interstate 94 that paved over St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. But he would love if you took a moment to reflect on Rondo’s legacy.
“Every time I’m on 94 now, I think about it,” says Jude of the historic — and largely African-American — neighborhood that was destroyed in 1960s to make way for I-94. “I think, ‘I’m driving over someone’s kitchen, on the spot where I am now.’ Someone had their first kiss here or someone was sunbathing. I am existing where someone bought their first house.”
The play is based on research that Jude and playwright Josh Wilder have been doing since shortly after Wilder submitted an inquiry to the History Theatre in 2014. In an effort to get the whole story, that research has included representatives of Rondo Avenue Inc., as well as Lexington/Hamline Community Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
“Josh got inspired by George Herrold (played in ‘Highwaymen’ by Peter Thomson), a longtime city planner who is credited with helping build St. Paul. George’s route, the Rondo/St. Anthony route, was one he considered but he didn’t propose it for the highway. He proposed it as a tree-lined parkway, as a way of connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul,” says Jude.
Herrold favored another route for I-94, a northern route, and the play, which also features a pastor, a businessman and community members who were drawn into the discussion, dramatizes how that option was overruled. Since that happened in the 1950s, it goes without saying that the decision was made by white men.
“No beef. I’m not saying those people were bad, but unintentional consequences happen and the people who pay the price, usually, are the urban poor and people of color,” says the director.
When Jude was approached with the idea for what became “The Highwaymen,” he was immediately interested, in part because the subject had been on his mind ever since he came to the Twin Cities.
“As a black artist, when you move here, the first question people ask you is, ‘Do you know about the history of Rondo?’ I’ve been wondering why people always want to tell black artists that story and I think it’s because there is a desire to remember the history, the beauty of that community and what a disastrous — to the community — event the construction of the highway was,” says Jude. “So I feel like the seeds of this story were planted in me in 2011, when I moved to town.”
For Jude, one of the most intriguing things about that story has been the realization that it wasn’t just the Rondo neighborhood that was demolished. Similar things happened in North Carolina, Philadelphia, Syracuse, New York and other places.
“All across this country, where interstates were built, the urban poor — and, specifically, communities of color — were displaced,” says Jude. “It’s hard to say that highways are not what Minneapolis and St Paul needed. They did need them. But, at the same time, did we have to go where we decided to go? Who loses when progress has to happen? That’s really at the heart of this play.”
And, of course, it remains a vital issue. Demonstrators who shut down I-94 last July, protesting the shooting of Philando Castile, linked to the Rondo legacy by choosing a spot where the neighborhood once stood.
“There was an irony in reclaiming that space, albeit temporarily, because we needed those protesters to move in order for progress to continue. But whose progress? For some of us to be able to get to work on time? I mean, the reason they were protesting was because justice for people of color does not seem to be advancing at the same rate as for others,” says Jude.
Noting that Wilder dedicated the play to “the memories we step on and the lives we drive over,” Jude implies that ambivalence is built into any discussion about Rondo and its legacy, especially for artists of color.
“W.E.B. DuBois said to be black in America is to have a double conscience, so I live in that space of recognizing my privileges and rights as an American and, at the same time, recognizing there are privileges I do not get because of being black,” says Jude.
Which brings him back around to whether he should feel bad about the daily commute he made to work on “The Highwaymen,” traveling I-94 from his St. Louis Park home to St. Paul.
“Do I feel guilty? No? It wasn’t my decision, but knowing what I know now, if I had been in that decision room, I hope I would have gone with the northern route, regardless of any inefficiencies involved or perception that it wasn’t the superior route,” says Jude. “I hope I would have chosen people over money.”
IF YOU GO
- What: “The Highwaymen”
- When: Through Feb. 26
- Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul
- Tickets: $40-$25, 651-292-4323 or historytheatre.com
