Eminent domain is meant for projects like roads, schools and utilities. The Fifth Amendment requires just compensation, but payments are often based on property values that discrimination had already pushed down. Renters, who make up much of many affected neighborhoods, often receive little or nothing.
The pattern is long. In 1857, New York City used eminent domain to build Central Park, displacing Seneca Village, a community of Black property owners. After the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, interstate routes cut through Black neighborhoods such as Rondo in St. Paul and Overtown in Miami. Urban renewal projects used the same power to clear areas officials labeled blighted.
In Kelo v. City of New London (2005), the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that taking private homes for economic development counted as public use. Many states then passed laws limiting such takings. Eminent domain matters because it has repeatedly converted Black-owned property into public or private gain, with little lasting benefit for the families removed.