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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)
Not at play in the fields of the Lord: The Bible League and Genocide
Editor’s Note: It is clear to anyone who investigates the history of West Michigan that religion has played a significant role in both promoting and resisting systems of oppression. The religious right for nearly 200 years in West Michigan has … Continue reading
Monuments, propaganda and settler colonialism in Grand Rapids
This posting is part of the Lies Across Grand Rapids series that looks at how land marks, monuments and other historical markings tell either a distorted view history or a history that defends power and privilege. There are numerous statues … Continue reading
Fighting Institutional Bias: An Interview with Disability Rights activist Clark Goodrich
This is the first in a series of interviews and postings that looks at the people and the history of the Disability Rights Movement in West Michigan. We recently had the chance to have a lively conversation with Clark Goodrich, … Continue reading
A Brief history of the KKK in West Michigan
It is important as we continue to reflect on and investigate a People’s History of Grand Rapids, that we not ignore the systems of oppression and power that have historically sought to impose their will on various sectors of civil … Continue reading
“We learned solidarity from those who thanked us for staying in the country when other North Americans had left”: An Interview with Bill Van Lopik on doing Solidarity work in El Salvador in the 1980s and 90s
This interview is with Bill Van Lopik, who, along with his wife, spent years doing justice work in El Salvador while calling Grand Rapids home. Bill is one of the hundreds of people from Grand Rapids who were part of … Continue reading
Neighborhood wins battle against outside development forces in Grand Rapids 1997
This article first appeared in a September/October 1997 issue of the FUNdamentalist. Last month we posted another story about a development/gentrification project in the Belknap neighborhood. This article deals with a battle in the near south east part of Grand … Continue reading
Defending Wealth from the Pulpit in 1996
Systems of power always have their own priests to sanction their actions. This has been especially true of monotheistic traditions throughout history and for Christianity in particular in West Michigan. For anyone who reads this website it is clear that … Continue reading
1980s Holiday Themed Political Cartoons Draw Attention to Militarism
In previous postings we have looked at the work of Grand Rapids cartoonist Jim Jirous in the 1980s, with his work on Central America and anti-nuclear themed cartoons. Jirous created political cartoons for a housing collective in Grand Rapids that … Continue reading
1991 Pamphlet demonstrates how Red Lining continued in Grand Rapids and what was being done to address it from the grassroots
Red Lining, a discriminatory practice by which banks, insurance companies, etc., refuse or limit loans, mortgages, insurance, etc., within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods, has long been a practice in Grand Rapids. One recent example if that of Mercantile … Continue reading
Grand Rapids People's History Project 