UCLA Library awarded Haynes Foundation grant to process landmark Century Freeway case

When a landmark 1972 lawsuit won the replacement of over 2,500 homes demolished to make way for the 105 freeway, it fundamentally transformed American urban planning. Now, thanks to a $68,389 archival grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the materials from that historic legal battle, held in the Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI) records at UCLA Library, will be organized and made accessible to the public.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1972, CLIPI was among the nation's first public interest law firms, establishing a new model for deploying legal expertise in service of the public good. Across nearly four decades, CLIPI spearheaded cases addressing environmental protection, gender representation in law enforcement, housing access and community displacement.

The focal point of the Haynes grant is processing and digitizing the case files from Keith vs. Volpe, commonly known as the Century Freeway Case. Among the largest and most consequential records within the CLIPI collection(opens in a new tab), this landmark lawsuit established national legal precedents for environmental compliance and replacement housing in major public infrastructure projects. The resulting 1981 consent decree transformed the Century Freeway into a model for urban planning, spurring a nationwide reevaluation of how major transit projects affect low-income communities and shifting urban planning away from auto-centric expansion toward accessible public transit.

“Keith v. Volpe, the landmark Century Freeway case, helped redefine the relationship between transportation planning, environmental stewardship, and community participation in Los Angeles,” said longtime Los Angeles City Council member and county supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “Making these records accessible through UCLA Library will provide an invaluable resource for understanding a landmark moment in Southern California's development and the lasting impact of citizen advocacy on public policy."

The 118 record cartons of Keith vs. Volpe are housed among 365 boxes of archival records donated to UCLA Library Special Collections by CLIPI. Professional archivists, along with graduate student fellows recruited through UCLA Library’s Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), will process the collection. The fellows will gain vital hands-on experience in preservation, finding aid creation, and making collections discoverable worldwide, while helping ensure CLIPI’s legal victories remain available to scholars, lawyers, journalists and public interest advocates for generations to come.

“Watching a student hold a primary source document — an affidavit, a court filing, the paper trail of a movement — and seeing how it sparks their imagination is inspiring,” said Athena N. Jackson, the Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian at UCLA. “Now, with generous support from the Haynes Foundation and CLIPI alumni, digitization of these legal records will open access far beyond our Library walls, connecting them to researchers at UCLA and around the world."

An additional $124,850 in matching contributions was generously provided by CLIPI alumni, bringing total active project support for this collection to $193,239. Please consider supporting the CLIPI Archive fund(opens in a new tab).

Header image: Construction of Century Freeway off Imperial Blvd near LAX, Los Angeles, 1987.(opens in a new tab) Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections.