The Advocate magazine named Grand Rapids one of the Gayest Cities in America more than a decade ago, in a feature exploring the “peer capita queerness of some less expected locales.” Grand Rapids has…
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President Gerald R. Ford wasn’t actually born in Grand Rapids, but since his mother moved here when he was just two weeks old, the city has always claimed him as a native son. Ford never quibbled with…
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It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of Former First Lady Betty Ford. On Friday, July 8, 2011 Former First Lady Betty Ford passed away at the age of 93. She died peacefully at Eisenhower…
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Grand Rapids historian Kevin Finney estimates that indigenous peoples lived in the greater Grand Rapids area for 11,000 years before the first European settlers arrived in 1650. Little is known about…
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As is the case with many American cities, the unique character of Grand Rapids was shaped largely by successive waves of European settlers. Dutch immigrants had a particularly outsized impact - Grand…
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As is the case with many American cities, the unique character of Grand Rapids was shaped largely by successive waves of European settlers. Germans, Poles, Italians, English, Irish and French…
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Few African Americans came to West Michigan until after the Civil War, fleeing Jim Crow discrimination in the southern states. Even then, the numbers were relatively small. It wasn't until the Great…
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The Latino, or Hispanic, community in Grand Rapids dates back as far as the 1920s, when a small number of young men from Mexico came here to work in railroad jobs. Almost a century later, this…
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In 2010, approximately 2% of Grand Rapids residents claimed Asian-only descent. The city’s Asian population jumped by 30% over the next decade, with the southeast suburb of Kentwood leading the way:…
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