This collection contains material created and assembled by Henry J. Graham concerning the efforts to stop the construction of the 281 North Expressway in San Antonio, Texas. Graham, along with his sister Wanda Ford and businessman Hal Dewar, was one of the leading organizers of this movement.

Plans for the construction of the "North Expressway," a highway leading north from downtown San Antonio past the airport, began in the mid 1950s to address issues of traffic congestion, airport access, and expanding urban development. While several routes were considered, the city leaders ultimately selected a route that passed through Brackenridge Park and the Olmos Basin. The San Antonio Conservation Society led the opposition that defeated the city highway bond issue that would fund the project in 1960. City leaders continued to pursue the expressway construction, and a second bond passed in 1961, and the route was approved by the Federal Highway Administration in April 1964. The Conservation Society joined forces with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and filed a lawsuit to stop expressway construction (the Sisters of Charity would withdraw from the lawsuit in 1965).

In 1966, Senator Ralph Yarborough passed an amendment on the act creating the US Department of Transportation that restricted the DoT from using land from public parks for transportation purposes. A group of concerned citizens, including Henry Graham, Wanda Ford, and Hal Dewar, formed the Save Our City Organization of San Antonio, which led the continued efforts to halt construction, with support from the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. The legal battle to halt the expressway continued all of the way to the United States Supreme Court.

In 1970, facing a separate lawsuit from the city for failure to pay property taxes, the Conservation Society withdrew from the suit; numerous individual members, including Ford and Graham, remained as plaintiffs. Federal legislation in 1973 allowed city and state funding of highway projects, which led to a US district court ruling that construction could go forward. The highway opened in 1978.

Graham's records of the Expressway opposition include a wide variety of formats, including correspondence, editorial writing, meeting notes, research, clippings, and ephemera. Correspondents include such notable figures as Lloyd Bentsen, O'Neil Ford, Wanda Ford, Henry B. González, Lady Bird Johnson, Maury Maverick, Boone Powell, Peggy Tobin, and John Tower.

In addition to Graham's records, the collection includes files created by businessman Hal Dewar and local Sierra Club president Anthony Athens. Following Dewar's death in 1975, Graham had suggested that an archives documenting the opposition efforts be assembled in his memory; it is likely that the addition of these two series to the collection represented such efforts.