Home owners, the NAACP, and the Sierra Club joined in a suit to delay construction of the Century Freeway in 1972. All construction (which, at the time, had been limited to clearing the land of houses and other buildings) was halted while the State and Federal Governments revised their Environmental Impact Statement. This revision, which was supposed to take only six months to complete, actually took seven years. It was at the end of this period that I first began to photograph.

While the plaintiffs had various reasons for joining in this court action, one of the important outcomes was the decision by the court to institute various social programs that would benefit those in communities affected by the freeway's construction. These included a Replenishment Housing Program, where displaced citizens would be able to purchase and rent homes and apartment units at below market costs. It also included women and minority freeway construction training and hiring programs. In addition, the court mandated that State gasoline taxes and Federal highway funds would be used to finance these plans.