Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives

06/01/2026

GRAAMA remembers the massacre of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921 Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it! We will never forget 🕊️💔• Black Wall Street. 💵🏢
In 1921 Black Americans built the wealthiest Black community in history inside 35 city blocks in Tulsa
Oklahoma.
600 businesses. A hospital. Schools. Law firms. Their own newspaper. The dollar circulated 19 times
within the community before it ever left.
56 years after slavery. They built all of this from nothing.
Then a newspaper headline called for a young Black man’s lynching over an elevator incident whose
details were never established.
By midnight a white mob of ten thousand — deputised and armed by the city — marched on Greenwood.
They burned every single building to the ground in 18 hours.
Up to 300 killed. 10,000 homeless. 6,000 detained in camps. The charges against the man it all started
over were eventually dropped.
They burned a city for nothing.
Removed from history books for 70 years. No reparations ever paid.
They built everything. And made sure you never knew.
because this one will change how you see everything.
untoldhistor

05/31/2026

Volunteer with us!! There are lots of opportunities to engage with us. Click 🔗in our bio or email us at [email protected]

05/30/2026

GRAAMA remembers Congressman Charles “Charlie” Rangel who passed away at 94 years old last week. He represented Harlem in Congress and was a fierce advocate for his community. Read on to learn more about this political icon. Rest In Power 🕊️ • Today, we honor the life and legacy of Charles Rangel, who has joined the ancestors at 94—ironically, on Memorial Day, a day he deeply embodied as a decorated Korean War veteran. 🕊️🇺🇸

From the battlefields abroad to the halls of Congress, Rangel never stopped fighting for the people. He served nearly 50 years as a Harlem Democrat, became the first Black chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

With his gravelly voice and fearless wit, he stood firm on civil rights, economic justice, and anti-war activism—no matter who pushed back. “I haven’t had a bad day since Korea,” he often said. And he meant it.

Rest in power, Congressman. 🙏🏾

Read more about his life and legacy on theGrio.com or tap our IG Stories.

05/30/2026

Join us for this fascinating conversation & book signing! GRAAMA welcomes historian, author & friend of GRAAMA, Dr Randal Jelks along with author & educator Shonda Buchanan on June 6. GRAAMA is partnering with Schuler Books to bring this event to you! Click link in our bio to reserve your spot! 📚

05/29/2026

GRAAMA remembers the late great Sonny Rollins Rest in Power 🕊️ • Sonny Rollins, one of jazz’s all-time greats, died Monday at the age of 95 after spending more than five decades pushing the boundaries of the genre.

Rollins won two Grammys and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in the early 2000s.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown has a look at his career.

05/29/2026

Check this out 🤓

Mike Phillips has worked with stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Tori Kelly, but says the lessons he learned growing up in Muskegon Heights still guide him today.

05/26/2026

: Rest In Peace the last of the 57 Jazz Musicians in the historic 1958 photograph; "A Great Day In Harlem"

05/24/2026

As we commemorate Memorial Day weekend, GRAAMA remembers Isaac Woodard Jr. (March 18, 1919 – September 23, 1992). Woodward Jr. was an American soldier and victim of racial violence. An African-American World War II veteran, on February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, he was attacked while still in uniform by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. The attack and his injuries sparked national outrage and galvanized the civil rights movement in the United States. The attack left Woodard completely and permanently blind. Due to South Carolina’s reluctance to pursue the case, President Harry S. Truman ordered a federal investigation. The police chief, Lynwood Shull, was indicted and went to trial in federal court in South Carolina, where he was acquitted by an all-white jury. This brave soldier risked his life for our country, and this tragic event left him permanently blind.

05/23/2026

!! Spread the word!! 📱Click the link to learn more.

Scholarship for West Michigan students excelling academically, involved in community, and growing personally proof that belief enables achievement.

05/23/2026

GRAAMA mourns the passing of Hip Hop legend Rob Base who passed away at 59. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock were an American hip-hop duo from Harlem, New York City. Rob Base was the stage name of Robert Ginyard (May 18, 1967 – May 22, 2026) and DJ E-Z Rock was the stage name of Rodney “Skip” Bryce (May 18, 1967 – April 27, 2014). They are best known for the 1988 single “It Takes Two”, a “hip-hop staple” that was a top 40 hit and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. That song was a part of the duo’s album of the same name, which also has been certified platinum. They are known for being pioneers of the crossover success that rap music would have in the popular music mainstream. R.I.P. 🕊️ • BREAKING: Rob Base, the rapper known for his hit song “It Takes Two,” has died after a private battle with cancer. He was 59.

Read more at link in bio.