Our Home Too Documentary Film Project Team Announces New Developments
According to Dante James, "The stories of Black men and women freedom fighters in Grand Rapids deserve to be elevated beyond interpretations whitewashed to protect white privilege. Everyone suffers when history is measured by a narrative that limits the truth. Together, we will tell the untold story of Grand Rapids' Black community. Together, we strive to honor the lives and legacies of the men and women who paved the way for me and other natives of the place we call home."
James, an Independent multi-Emmy award-winning filmmaker and native Grand Rapidian is producing the Our Home Too documentary film and outreach project exploring the Black freedom struggle in Grand Rapids from the 1920s to contemporary times. The project is moving forward expeditiously. With the support of Grand Rapids native and respected businessperson Clifford McClain.
"I am glad that I took on a project such as this," McClain said to The Grand Rapids Times. "Being from Grand Rapids, James is the right person for the job. Anything he has done in circling back to the issues is phenomenal. They should have been settled, eradicated, years ago."
Regenerative Community Builders a 501(c)3, is now accepting tax-deductible contributions for the project. Please make checks payable and mail them to Regenerative Community Builders Inc. at 2222 W. Grand River Ave. STE A Okemos, MI 48864.
Regenerative Community Builders is submitting funding proposals to foundations and businesses. Additionally, discussions are underway between WGVU-TV management and Dante James to explore possible collaborations. James is a Grand Valley State University distinguished alumnus and a former WGVU-TV staff member. Various community activists and lay Grand Rapidians support Our Home Too and will contribute to developing the film. Former Kent County Commissioner Paul Mayhue, Rev. Robert Dean, pastor of New Life Church of God in Christ, Rev. Reggie Smith, Director of Diversity for the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and researcher Ms. Sophia Brewer are already sharing editorial and historical insights.
Working with the late Henry Hampton, Executive producer of Eyes on the Prize, the landmark PBS series, influenced James' appreciation and respect for Black history and Black perspective storytelling. James states, "Our Home Too strives to continue the traditions of Oscar Micheaux and Henry Hampton, Black storytellers, defining our communities and exploring and interpreting our struggles from our point of view, unfiltered by corporate-controlled mass media."
Our Home Too will explore the stories and the social, political, and economic complexities of Black families, including James' and their move from substandard housing on the west side to better accommodations on the east side. He recalls, "The west side was a segregated community that affirmed our culture and identity; in contrast, the east side, Ottawa Hills school district, was psychologically an everyday racial combat zone."
South High School was also a racial combat zone. Thurman Walker, a former South High school student, participates in the film as a community-based storyteller. His remembrances of a racially charged 1964 physical altercation with a white, ex-marine, South High School teacher counters a recently published chronicle of the confrontation. Historically and recently, external interpretations of Black experiences have been embraced and supported by powerful white Grand Rapidians; too often, such external interpretations become the accepted narrative, while authentic Black experiences are ignored or marginalized.
Thurman Walker's story exemplifies how Our Home Too embraces self-definition and identifying witnesses to tell Black freedom struggle stories through the lens of resilient yet oppressed Black Grand Rapidians.
A local foundation has committed to "explore the ways we have allowed culture and systems to maintain white supremacy."
Dante James states, "the Our Home Too project aims to inform the general population and decision-makers of the legacy, pain, and suffering associated with the deeply ingrained structural and individual racism in Grand Rapids. Together let's expose it, deconstruct it, and reconstruct an equitable society where "Grand Rapids nice" is a reality for all its residents."
"Faith is born out of suffering, and suffering is Faith's most powerful contradiction. This is the Christian dilemma. The only meaningful Christian response is to resist unjust suffering and to accept the painful consequence of that resistance."
This quote by renowned Black theologian Dr. James Cone (1938-2018) underscores the moral obligation for Christians to address these issues.
James believes, "the Black community, foundations, businesses, and individuals voicing opposition to racism and white supremacy will recognize and support this project as an opportunity to help dismantle racism and white supremacy. It will make some Black and white Grand Rapidians uncomfortable because it requires confronting structural, institutional and individual racism, but doing so is crucial to achieving equity and collective liberation."
Anyone seeking more information can email Dante James at . Please make tax-deductible check or money order contributions payable to Regenerative Community Builders Inc. The mailing address is Regenerative Community Builders Inc. 2222 W. Grand River Ave. STE A Okemos, MI 48864. The Our Home Too project team thanks everyone in advance for supporting our efforts.
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