Buttigieg tours Mississippi civil rights site and says transportation is key to equity in the US

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has toured the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Mississippi’s capital city. Buttigieg said after Friday’s tour that transportation is important to securing equity and justice in the United States because it affects economic opportunities. The secretary spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi promoting projects that are receiving money from a 2021 federal infrastructure act. One is a planned $20 million improvement to Medgar Evers Boulevard in the city of Jackson. That road is a stretch of U.S. Highway 49. Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson says Jackson has missed previous transportation funding while money has gone to more affluent suburbs.