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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
Category Archives: Civil Rights/Freedom Movement
3000 march in Grand Rapids after Birmingham Church Bombing – 1963
On Sunday, September 15 of 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church was the site on a White Terrorist bombing, resulting in the deaths of four African American girls – Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair. … Continue reading
The Mustache Affair in Grand Rapids, as reported on by the Commercial Media in 1966
(Special Thanks to the Grand Rapids Public Library and the Grand Rapids City Archives for assisting with finding the material sources here.) Chapter 4 of Todd Robinson’s important and insightful book, A City Within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle … Continue reading
High rent and overcrowding was a potential threat of “slum development” for blacks in a 1947 Grand Rapids Urban League study
We would like to thank the staff at the Grand Rapids Public Library in their History and Special Collections sections for assisting us in find the documents needed for this post. Three weeks ago we posted an article about a … Continue reading
State of the Black Community in Grand Rapids – 1940
n 1940, the Urban League conducted a survey of the black community in Grand Rapids . The survey revealed some interesting trends and dynamics and can be instructive for those of us who want to learn from history. The report … Continue reading
W. E. B. Du Bois spoke in Grand Rapids two times in the early part of the 20th Century
The great African American intellectual and author W. E. B. Du Bois came to Grand Rapids on two separate occasions, first in 1917 and later in 1928. On his first visit in 1917, he spoke to the Sunday Evening Club … Continue reading
Housing Segregation as Systemic Racism in Grand Rapids: The Early 20th Century
(The post today was referenced in the book, African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids, by Randal Jelks, for which we are grateful.) One of the most contentious issues as it relates to … Continue reading
Booker T. Washington and White Paternalism in Grand Rapids in the early part of the 20th Century
(The post today was referenced in the book, African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids, by Randal Jelks, for which we are grateful.) In our last post we looked at how Grand Rapids … Continue reading
19th Century Newspapers in Grand Rapids on the Question of Black Suffrage
(The post today was referenced in the book, African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids, by Randal Jelks, for which we are grateful.) Grand Rapids used to have numerous daily newspapers, up until … 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
Grand Rapids People's History Project 