Dawn breaks after protest: Community cleanup provides unexpected opportunity for dialogue

On Saturday, May 30, over 3000 people gathered downtown Grand Rapids to protest the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. At noon on Saturday, three events kicked off organized by three different groups, with the last focused on a silent march winding around the city and ending at the Grand Rapids Police Department. Shortly after this event ended, violence and destruction began and continued throughout the night, resulting in the destruction of dozens of properties downtown, including numerous restaurants and retail storefronts.

Though investigators, activists, officials, local media, and police are still working to establish a timeline to better communicate with the public, Sunday morning shone a bright light on the community’s quest for solidarity. Gathering in the hundreds, every day Grand Rapidians of all races, ages, and backgrounds took to the streets with brooms, scrub brushes, and plywood to clean public spaces, wiping away broken glass, scrubbing graffiti, and boarding up smashed windows.

These are the images of that effort — a quiet show of support for the people and spaces that make up downtown. In the midst of a nationwide race crisis, in the middle of a pandemic, and as we approach an uncertain future of a mandatory 7 p.m. curfew, these citizens showed that quiet acts of redemption speak loudly, and sometimes the tools of hope are our own hands and feet, equipped with buckets, brooms, and sometimes even face masks.

While there was much work to do that began at daybreak (and still much more), we cannot help but imagine that as communities of color ask white people to begin to engage in dialogue about race, opportunities still exist to come together in Grand Rapids. We at Rapid Growth hope this opportunity is not missed.

Photographer Bud Kibby has worked with Rapid Growth Media over the years. The morning of Sunday, May 31, Bud headed downtown to capture images of the community coming together to cleanup after a night of unrest. To view more of his work, visit his website.