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Recent Posts
- New Interview for the GRPS Uncovered podcast
- New GRPS Uncovered podcast for 7/7/2025
- Radical Grand Rapids: Places, Dates, Actions and People
- New book by long time community activist Paul Mayhue: Another Brother in The Struggle
- New Grand Rapids podcast sheds light on the history of the Grand Rapids Public Schools
Author Archives: Jeff Smith (GRIID)
Haiti and Grand Rapids: Part 3 (1993)
This is the third part of three articles from 1993, written about the Haiti/Grand Rapids connection, a series which appeared in the Independent newspaper, The Fundamentalist. Part 1 looked at a Grand Rapids-based company, H.H. Cutler, which had moved their … Continue reading
Rockford Baptist Mission to Haiti: Curing the African Mind (1993)
(This is the second posting on Haiti in 1993 during the US Embargo against the country that was meant to punish the Aristide government for defying US policy. The first posting dealt with a Grand Rapids company that was profiting … Continue reading
Resisting the Vietnam War: Interview with Paul Milanowski
This interview was conducted in December of 2016 by the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. Fr. Paul Milanowski talks about how he got involved in doing anti-Vietnam War work in the mid-1960s, his involvement with doing draft counseling, doing tax … Continue reading
Giving Haiti the Business: Grand Rapids-based H.H. Cutler Leads the Way (1993)
(This article on Grand Rapids-based company H.H. Cutler and trade policy in the early 1990s is re-posted from the Independent newspaper, The FUNdamentalist Nov/Dec 1993) According to the National Labor Committee report, “Haiti After the Coup,” H.H. Cutler was the … Continue reading
Cops, Property and the White Gaze: Photos from the 1967 Riot in Grand Rapids
Last week we posted a transcript, along with images, from a few archived stories from WOOD TV8 that we found at the Grand Rapids Public Library from the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. In today’s post, we wanted to share … Continue reading
Centering White Voices: How WOOD TV 8 framed the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids
Next summer will mark the 50th anniversary of what is often called the 1967 “race riots” in Grand Rapids. Previously, we have looked at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of this black uprising, which was responding to police brutality and … Continue reading
Anti-Nuclear Resistance in Grand Rapids: Part II
Last week we shared Part I, where I had been arrested in an anti-nuclear action in the summer of 1990 at Wurtsmith Air Force Base near Bay City in Michigan. After being arrested, I refused to go to the court … Continue reading
Anti-Nuclear Resistance in Grand Rapids: Part 1
In 1990, several people from West Michigan participated in an action at Wurtsmith Air Force base near Bay City, Michigan. This action was part of a multi-year campaign that targeted the military base because it was a Strategic Air Command … Continue reading
A.J. Muste: radical pacifist, labor organizer and former Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation spent his formative years in Grand Rapids
One never knows how our lives evolve and what impact we will have on social issues and the various movements for radical social justice. Abraham Johannes Muste, also known as AJ, was one of those people who had and continues … Continue reading
Grand Rapids People's History Project 