Abstract The Black History exhibit collection documents a joint 1984-1985 project by Alpha Kappa Alpha, the Grand Rapids Study Club, the Suburban Club, the Grand Rapids Public Library, the Grand Rapids Public Schools and the Grand Rapids Public Museum to detail the history of the Black community in Grand Rapids. Historic items, including photographs, were collected and reproduced. From the collected data a photo exhibit, "150 Years: An Exhibit of the African American Presence in Grand Rapids," was...

Abstract The Burgess Beverly Family Scrapbook documents two African American families who lived Grand Rapids, Michigan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The best-known member of this family was Hattie Beverly, the first woman of color to teach for the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Additonally, the scrapbook documents Bishop John Burgess who was the first African American to head an Episcopal diocese. The scrapbook mostly contains photographs as well as newspaper clippings and...

Abstract This collection includes oral histories of Black men and women from Grand Rapids, Michigan who were part of the Great Migration. The interviews were conducted as part of an interim course at Calvin College in January 2002, taught by Dr. Randal Jelks. Students interviewed 15 individuals and wrote papers summarizing the interviews and reflecting on their experience. The interviews focus on childhood memories, family, education, work, faith, differences between the north and south and...

Abstract Dr. Eugene Shelley Browning (1883-1955) was a physician in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Browning was the only African American in his 1905 class at the Detroit Medical College. He broke racial barriers by obtaining admitting privileges in Grand Rapids hospitals and is recognized as the pioneer of present day well-baby clinics. Dr. Browning also studied medicine at Lincoln University, the University of Michigan and the University of Vienna, Austria. The collection contains many of his diplomas...

Abstract

The Grand Rapids Public Library African American history collection is a devised collection designed to make a place for various found information and small accessions of items documenting African Americans in Grand Rapids and Michigan. The collection also contains general reference publications relating to slavery. The finding aid also references known African American resources elsewhere in the GRPL local history collections.

Abstract

This collection contains photocopies of newspaper clippings reporting the lives of African Americans in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The newspaper clippings cover a hundred year period, from 1830 to 1936. They include mostly Grand Rapids newspapers but are supplemented with clippings from Chicago and other Michigan newspapers. Review and collection of the articles was primarily done by the donor, Carl Bajema.

Abstract The Grand Rapids Study Club records document the activities and membership of this Grand Rapids, Michigan African American womens’ organization. Included are minutes, correspondence, membership lists, yearbooks, historical notes and clippings. Holdings provide information on the Club from its creation in 1904 until 1987, with the bulk of the contents from the 1930s to the early 1970s. Yearbooks from the junior club, called the Pierian Club, are also included with the collection. Historical...

Abstract Helen Jackson Claytor (1907-2005) was the first African-American president of the national YWCA. She lived much of her life in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Claytor sought to bring equal rights to women, children, widowed persons and orphans, and advocated for rights to justice, housing, education, health and death with dignity, as well as freedom from racial and other prejudices. Locally, Claytor was the first African-American president of the Grand Rapids YWCA and, among other...

Abstract James C. Craig (1849-1902) was an African American barber and mason. The collection contains newspaper clippings from Grand Rapids and other newspapers apparently collected by Craig during the time he lived in Grand Rapids, 1871-1902. The clippings detail his active involvement and interest in African-American men's organizations, with most of the stories pertaining to conventions, meetings and events of those organizations. There are also articles about community events and politics, plus...

Abstract

The Kent County African American baseball teams exhibit collection, including the Jess Elsters, includes items used in an exhibit in the Local History Department in the early 1990s. Also included are research materials such as newspaper articles about those teams.