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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)
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #15: Honoring the First Earth Day Action in Grand Rapids
Last semester, art students in Brett Colley’s GVSU class on printmaking, invited me to come talk about the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. The intent of the class was to have students investigate their own part of a People’s History … Continue reading
Grand Rapids, Statues and White Supremacy
There has been a great deal of public conversation in the weeks following the White Supremacist violence in Charlottesville, around the issue of white supremacy and symbols of white supremacy. In Charlotteville, the decision was made to remove a statue … Continue reading
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #14: When the LGBT ordinance was defeated in Grand Rapids in 1991
Last semester, art students in Brett Colley’s GVSU class on printmaking, invited me to come talk about the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. The intent of the class was to have students investigate their own part of a People’s History … Continue reading
1888 Dummy Line Riot in Grand Rapids: Church members throw rocks and tear up rail lines
Dutch members of the Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church were considered pious people. The church members did more than just pray in 1888, when the Street Railway Company of Grand Rapids wanted to put a rail line along Eastern Avenue. … Continue reading
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #13: The Klan in Grand Rapids 1925
Last semester, art students in Brett Colley’s GVSU class on printmaking, invited me to come talk about the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. The intent of the class was to have students investigate their own part of a People’s History … Continue reading
Students confront Richard DeVos at GVSC in 1977
One of our earliest posting here on the GR People’s History site, was a student critique of Amway co-founders Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel by a Calvin College student in 1971. We recently came across another example of students … Continue reading
Early Years of GRTV: An Interview with Tim Goodwin
We recently conducted an interview with Tim Goodwin about the founding and history of cable access channel GRTV in Grand Rapids. The interview is in 3 parts, but before each portion of the interview, we wanted to include some visual … Continue reading
50 years after the 1967 Riot in Grand Rapids: What we know and what can we learn?
On July 25th, 1967, Grand Rapids police officers arrested several Black youth, when they pulled them over believing they were in a stolen vehicle. One source says that the officers may have used excessive force in dealing with the Black youth, according … Continue reading
WOOD TV 8 footage of the 1967 Riot in Grand Rapids
(Thanks to the Grand Rapids Public Library for directing me to this archival material.) Last week, we posted a 1987 story from the Grand Rapids Press about the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids, where two men who were part of … Continue reading
A Retrospective on the 1967 Riot in Grand Rapids, Twenty Years Afterwards: From the Grand Rapids Press
(This is the first of a series of postings that deal with the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids, which took place 50 years ago between July 25 and July 27.) “It is not enough for me to stand before you … Continue reading
Grand Rapids People's History Project 