A History of Immigration to Grand Rapids

As the issue of immigration and immigration reform continues to be an extreme point of contention in America, it’s very important to put it into a historical context.  Grand Rapids Community College Professor and Grand Rapids Historian Emeritus Gordon Olson did just that on Monday night.  Olson gave a talk titled “Fellow Immigrants: Ethnicity, Race, and the Peopling of Grand Rapids”.

Olson set the tone for his talk early on by relating a story about President Franklin Roosevelt addressing the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The Daughters believed that the US needed to close its doors to further immigration.  The story goes that Roosevelt addressed the group as “fellow immigrants” and reminded them that all of us are the children of immigrants one way or another.

Olson said that much of the immigration history of Grand Rapids began around 1780 when French fur traders and missionaries came here.  In order to make room for more settlers, several treaties were signed to remove Native Americans from their indigenous lands.  Olson specifically cited the Treaty of Detroit which he said “gave the Odawa a choice: either move north or west to Kansas.” He said the majority moved to an area around what is now Hart, north of Muskegon, where there is still a large Odawa reservation.  Olson made it very clear that this was not the Odawa’s idea.

Olson said that during the period of 1865 to 1925 about 35 million people immigrated to the US.  He specifically cited many crop diseases, like the infamous potato famine in Ireland as a reason for so many who came to America.  He also said many were fleeing various “monarchs, aristocrats, and despots” in Europe.  Olson made a point of dispelling the popular myth that all immigrants came through New York’s Ellis Island, which did not open till 1892.  He said most actually immigrated through Castle Gardens, also in New York.

Much of Olson’s talk was devoted to many of the patterns that all of the immigrant groups went through.  “Exploitation was always part of the immigrant experience” he said.  Olson explained how whether you had just gotten off the boat in New York or had arrived here in Grand Rapids by train, there were people waiting for new arrivals offering help to find lodging or work, but always for fees, which could sometimes be crippling.  Olsen said that if new immigrants accepted this help, you “were beholden to the company.”

While many new arrivals were farmers, especially amongst the Dutch, several immigrants chose to start their own small businesses, particularly restaurants, and neighborhood grocery stores.  Olson said this was due to the fact that you could open for relatively cheap and they were businesses that the whole family could pitch in on.

As more immigrants began arriving in Grand Rapids, one of the clearest patterns that began was the neighborhoods in which people settled.  For instance much of the Polish population set up neighborhoods around the Michigan St. and Diamond Ave. areas, as well as West Fulton.  Various social clubs and street names in these areas still display much of this history.

Another persistent pattern Olson pointed to was hostility that all new immigrant groups received from those who got here before them.  He said there was always a question from the older groups asking, “Will these people be as good a citizen as I am?”

Olson showed some pictures of many of the newer immigrant groups of the time, such as Lithuanians and Italians receiving “citizenship classes” often from earlier Dutch and Germans.  He said these were often held in the back of factories, after workers had just finished ten-hour days.

I took a chance to ask Professor Olson about any tactics used through history to combat some of this hostility and racism that is still prevalent today, especially towards Latino immigrants.  He said that throughout history, the tactic used most was for the newest group to assimilate into American culture and wait for the next group to show up.

Olson also devoted some time in his talk to the history of African-Americans in Grand Rapids.  He said that Michigan was a wanted destination for the Underground Railroad because the state did not cooperate with returning escaped slaves.  He also talked about how in 1872, William Hardy was elected to be the Gaines Township supervisor, and is believed to be the first African-American to hold public office in the state.  He said that the Hardy family still owns a farm in the Gaines area, but due to construction of M-6 and other development, it has been getting increasingly smaller.

Olson said that as it got to be the 1950s and 60s, De Facto segregation became a problem here just as it did in most of the rest of the country.  He said that in the summers of 1967 and 68, there were race riots along Jefferson Ave, in which looting and fires occurred.

Professor Olson finished his talk with a little bit of up to date history, such as immigration to Grand Rapids of Latinos, Vietnamese, and other groups displaced by wars around the world.  He said that these groups are pretty much going through the same patterns as other immigrant groups, from forming their own neighborhoods and small businesses, to experiencing hostility and racism from other one time immigrants.

Whether or not America has ever been the Land of Opportunity is a matter of serious debate, but people displaced from all over the world have been immigrating to America for centuries and its pretty clear that the Grand Rapids history of immigration correlates pretty closely to the rest of the country.