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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)
Reversing the Missionary Position: Documentary recounts the experience of GR activist involved in the Central American Solidarity Movement
(Disclosure: This documentary is based upon a book written by the same person who hosts the Grand Rapids People’s History Project, Jeff Smith) In 2003, I wrote a book about my experiences doing Central American Solidarity work, Sembramos, Comemos, Sembramos: … Continue reading
Honoring the Legacy of Milt Lennox
Yesterday it was reporter that Milt Lennox, former owner and founder of the Apartment Lounge had passed away. As a member of the LGBTQ community, Milt not only was a major supporter of numerous LGBTQ rights campaigns in West Michigan, … Continue reading
The Trial of Vern Ehlers: Dramatizing War Crimes
In 2003, just months after the US invasion/occupation of Iraq had begun, activists in Grand Rapids with the People’s Alliance for Justice & Change organized a mock trial for then Michigan Congressman Vern Ehlers. The mock trial was a piece … Continue reading
Posted in Anti-War/Anti-Imperialism
Tagged trial of vern ehlers, US war crimes, US war in Iraq
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The Role of Church & State in Native Displacement in West MI : Settler Colonialism in Grand Rapids Part II
Last month we posted a piece that names the founding of Grand Rapids as a manifestation of Settler Colonialism. We pointed out that Native communities that lived along the Washtanong, what Settler Colonialists now call the Grand River. We also pointed … Continue reading
Campaign to Boycott Salvadoran Coffee was part of the Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity Movement in the early 1990s
The US backed counterinsurgency war in El Salvador saw one of its darkest days in November of 1989, when Salvadoran soldiers (many of them trained at the US Army School of the Americas) murdered six catholic priests, their cook and her … Continue reading
The Wall of Fame: Wealth and Influence at GVSU
When reading radical historian Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States, it becomes clear early on that one can not talk about social movements without talking about the power structures that those movements fought against. Whether it was … Continue reading
When Grand Rapids Saw Red: Early Grand Rapids Labor History Part II
(This is Part II of a two part series by local labor historian Michael Johnston. Click here for Part I) It didn’t matter that he was dressed in his army uniform, medals for heroism pinned to his front shirt pocket. … Continue reading
Early Labor History in Grand Rapids, Part I
(This is an article written by local labor historian Michael Johnston and is re-printed with permission from the author.) In 1900 Grand Rapids was a bustling river town, not fully settled, but no longer frontier. The red light district was … Continue reading
Archival photo from Central America Solidarity Protest in the early 1980s Grand Rapids
(Thanks to Barb Lester for sharing this photo.) As we have written in the past, there was a lively Central American Solidarity movement in Grand Rapids in the 1980s that lasted well into the 1990s. Those who organized in the … Continue reading
Grand Rapids People's History Project 