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Recent Posts
- A People’s History of Grand Rapids book is now available
- Revolutionary Anarchist Youth zine highlights benefit show in Grand Rapids for political prisoner Geronimo Pratt in 1996
- Revolutionary Anarchist Youth flyer on the Amway co-founders
- Just after the Depression years, the Grand Rapids City Government provided direct relief and created a public works project for those unemployed
- Some examples of the conditions for blacks in Grand Rapids and what types of discrimination blacks faced on a daily basis in the early part of the 20th Century
Category Archives: Neighborhood organizing
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
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
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #9 – Gentrification as modern day colonialism
This past semester, art students in Brett Colley’s 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
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #7 – African American Community responds to Red-lining with Auburn Hills Project
This past semester, art students in Brett Colley’s 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
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #5 – Marian Clements, founder of Well House
This past semester, art students in Brett Colley’s 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
Artwork highlights a People’s History in Grand Rapids – Print #1 – The Laker Effect
The past semester, art students in Brett Colley’s 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
Zoned Out: Again the City Votes to Demolish Homes in Grand Rapids (1995)
This article is from the Independent newspaper, the FUNdamentalist, November of 1995. Just weeks after the Grand Rapids City Commissioners voted to destroy some 70 houses on the westside to make way for parking, they voted again in August to … Continue reading
The 1916 City Charter change in Grand Rapids was nothing short of Class Warfare
During the 1911 Furniture Workers Strike and its aftermath, the business community and leading industrialist, began to develop a plan that would significantly alter the way electoral politics was done in Grand Rapids. The 1911 Furniture Workers Strike revealed several … Continue reading
Residents ignored again as Grand Prix Committee pushes to convert downtown GR streets into racetrack – 1996
Since as early as 1992, a DeVos and two others have been talking about holding Grand Prix races in downtown Grand Rapids. These races are held elsewhere in the country, although generally not on city streets. The noise is outrageous … Continue reading
Grand Rapids Heartside Park threatened by off ramp -1996
The linked article on the Heartside Park is re-published by the FUNdamentalist newspaper, which was published from 1991 – 1998 in Grand Rapids. The Heartside Park almost didn’t happen. As the linked article suggests, there were lots of political and … Continue reading
Grand Rapids People's History Project 