GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Black history is being made every day as Black Americans continuously make significant contributions and impact in various fields and industries, such as politics, arts, sciences, medicine, sports, technology, and more.
Every day, Black Americans are making an impact and leaving their mark in various ways, shaping and influencing the world for the better. Their achievements and contributions are an important part of not only Black history, but American history and for that we recognize and celebrate them.
In 1983, Dr. Patricia Pulliam and Cedric Ward created the GIANT awards to recognize exceptional African Americans leaders and organizations who impact our West Michigan communities in a variety of areas. This year is the 40th year the Grand Rapids Community College will host the celebration, and in recognition of this,13 ON YOUR SIDE is helping to highlight the past GIANT honorees.
Honorees have made meaningful contributions to Grand Rapids in a variety of areas, including justice, education, religion, medicine, humanities, business and labor.
The gala is planned for 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at DeVos Place’s Exhibit Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. Individual tickets are $100, with eight-seat tables available for $1,000. Proceeds will support the Milo M. Brown Scholarship and the Junior GIANT Fund and can be purchased online.
13 ON YOUR SIDE Sports Director Jamal Spencer will serve as an emcee at the event.
GIANT Award winner bios from GRCC Foundation
1983 - Helen Claytor
Helen Claytor was the first African American to serve as president of the YWCA in Grand Rapids and the first to lead an integrated chapter. She became the first African American president of the national organization in 1967.
She served on the Grand Rapids chapter of the Michigan Commission on Civil Rights and helped establish the Michigan Fair Employment Practices Commission. She also served on the Michigan Youth Commission. She was one of five Grand Rapids residents appointed to study race relations, which resulted in the city’s Human Relations Commission, now the Office of Equity and Engagement. She was a member of the National Women’s Advisory Committee to the Office of Economic Opportunity, the National Women’s Advisory Commission on Civil Rights, and the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
Claytor, who graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota, received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Eastern Michigan University and an Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Western Michigan University. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. A statue of her, installed in 2014, stands on Grand Rapids Community College’s Dr. Juan R. Olivarez Student Plaza.
1983 - Paul Phillips
Paul Phillips became executive director of the Grand Rapids Urban League in 1947 and served in that position until his death in 1976. He won a position on the City Charter Revision Commission in 1951, and, in 1962, he was the first African American to win a seat on the Grand Rapids Board of Education. He became vice chairman on minority affairs for President Ford in 1975 and also served on the Michigan Mental Health Society’s board as a member and president.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he ran track. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from Fisk University. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from what was then Grand Valley State College in 1972. The recreation center at the Boys & Girls Club of Grand Rapids is named for him.
1984 Donna Carter
Donna Carter has touched countless students through her work in teacher training and curriculum writing.
While a teacher and administrator in Grand Rapids Public Schools, she worked with the Michigan Reading Association. She later served as president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Her career has taken around the nation, including to school districts in Minnesota and South Carolina, and she has worked with K-12 students, college students, children with reading disabilities, and incarcerated teens.
She is currently founder and board president of GateWay Boarding Academy, a Maryland school that serves at-risk adolescent males.
1984 - Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts started as a General Motors management trainee in 1977 and retired 25 years later as the automaker’s “$100 Billion Man.”
After graduating from high school, he worked on the assembly line of Lear Siegler Corp. while earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Michigan University. He later completed the Harvard Business School’s Executive Development Program and studied international business in Switzerland. He rose through GM to become group vice president for North American vehicle sales, services and marketing. His $100 billion enterprise was larger than many Fortune 500 companies.
After retiring, he was asked to serve as the emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools. During his two and a half years in that position, he reduced a $327 million deficit to $76 million and put in place strategies to ensure financial stewardship and promote efficiency.
In 2000, he launched M-Xchange.com and co-founded Reliant Equity Investors in 2001. He is now a partner in Bagley Development Group. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Florida A&M, Northwood and Grand Valley State universities and Paine College. He received an American Success Award in 1989 and was named Black Enterprise magazine’s Executive of the Year in 1996. He received the Automotive Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Citation in 1998 and Michigan Chronicle’s Legacy in Motion Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
1985 - The Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess
Born in Grand Rapids, John M. Burgess became the first African American to preside as bishop over an Episcopal diocese in the United States.
He completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan before earning his Master of Divinity from Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., in 1934. He then returned to his home parish of St. Philip’s Episcopal, where he ministered to the working-class congregations through the Depression and World War II. He served as Howard University’s Episcopal chaplain from 1946 to 1956. In 1951, he became the first black canon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where he spoke on human and civil rights.
He became archdeacon of missions and parishes in Boston in 1956. He was known for his efforts to revitalize urban ministry, confront racism in schools, support prison reform and improve the diocese’s efficiency. He became bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1962 and bishop coadjutor in 1970.
After his retirement in 1975, he taught pastoral theology at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Yale Divinity School. He received honorary degrees from the University of Michigan; Northeastern University; the University of Massachusetts; and Boston, Assumption, Trinity and St. Augustine’s colleges. He died in 2003.
1986 - Joseph H. McMillan
Joseph H. McMillan’s career spanned from elementary teaching to higher education administration.
He was the first male African American elementary teacher in Grand Rapids Public Schools – where he was known as “Dr. Mac” – and, later, the first African American principal. He then became one of the first African American officials at Michigan State University, serving as assistant vice president for human relations and director of equal opportunity programs. He then was named assistant provost for academic affairs and minority affairs at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. While at U of L, he served as chairman of the Black Family in America Conference for 34 years and collaborated with local organizations on the Rising 5th Graders and Street Academy programs for young African American males. He retired as Professor Emeritus in early childhood education.
In 1992, he received the Marcus Foster Distinguished Educator Award from the National Association of Black School Educators. He died in 2010.
1987 - W. Wilberforce Plummer
W. Wilberforce Plummer was generous with his skills and his time. He donated his dental services every summer to an organization in Haiti and was involved in many governmental and nonprofit panels.
After graduating from a Detroit high school, he attended West Virginia State College, where he was part of the Army’s specialized training program. He completed his training and his dental degree at Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tenn., in 1947. When he returned from active duty in Panama, he moved to Grand Rapids and joined the Air Force Reserve.
He served on the city’s Board of Housing Appeals, Community Health Services, the Kent County Council on Alcoholism and the state Public Health Advisory Council. He was also an active member of Citizens for Representative Government, American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, Opera Grand Rapids, Big Brothers, and the NAACP. He was board chairman of the United Church of Christ’s Michigan Conference and a member of the national board for Homeland Ministries. As a member of National Council for Christians for Social Action, he traveled with an interdenominational team to South Africa to learn about U.S. corporate responses to apartheid.
Plummer, who died in 2016, received the A.J. Muste Peace and Justice Award from the Institute for Global Education. The W.W. Plummer Humanitarian Award is named in his honor.
1988 - The Rev. John V. Williams
The Rev. John V. Williams was called to serve as pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in 1949. He was the sixth – and longest-serving – pastor in the church’s 88-year-old history.
During his tenure, the church moved from Finney Avenue to Caulfield Avenue SW and later into its current $1.5 million building at 130 Delaware St. SW.
He established a hot lunch program at New Hope and was active in the Progressive Voters League.
He died in 1987.
1989 - Roger Wilkins
Roger Wilkins was an attorney, civil rights activist, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and professor.
He came to Grand Rapids at age 11 to live with his mother, Helen Claytor, recipient of the first Giant Among Giants Award in 1983. After graduating from Creston High School, he earned bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Michigan.
He worked as a lawyer in Ohio before joining the United States Agency for International Development. He became a senior aide to President Kennedy and then joined President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration as director of the federal Community Relations Service and later became assistant attorney general – at the time one of the highest-ranking African Americans to ever serve in the executive branch.
After a stint with the Ford Foundation, he left government and became an editorial writer for The Washington Post, where he contributed to the newspaper’s 1973 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Watergate scandal. He joined The New York Times editorial board in 1974. Until his retirement in 2007, he was a professor of history and American culture at George Mason University. He died in 2017.
1990 - Cedric Ward
The arts and social justice were the twin passions of Cedric Ward.
His theatrical debut at the age of 13 in a Circle Theater production of “Little Foxes” was the start of four decades of directing, performing and volunteering. He and his wife, Sandy, established Circle Theater’s first children’s company, and he wrote and directed its first production, “Hansel and Gretel.” He founded the Robeson Players in the 1980s to provide theatrical opportunities to African Americans and co-founded the Grand Rapids Symphony’s “Symphony with Soul” concert.
He and Pat Pulliam, publisher of the Grand Rapids Times, created the Giants Awards, and the Junior Giants Cedric Ward Leadership Scholarship is named in his honor. The Cedric and Sandy Ward Leadership Award goes annually to a Grand Rapids Community College student.
He was honored by the Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids for his leadership and received the Dr. MaLinda P. Sapp Legacy Award posthumously from the Grand Rapids Symphony.
He died in 2002.
1991 Interdenominational Alliance
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1992 - Myrna Granderson
Myrna Granderson worked hard to become a nurse and then worked even harder to share the importance of health care throughout the community.
She earned her associate degree in Nursing from Grand Rapids Junior College, juggling her studies with raising eight children. She served as health services manager at the Grand Rapids Job Corps Center and started Harambee Nurses, a group that travels to Grand Rapids schools with an interactive health presentation. She also was a member of the Yellow Light Ensemble, a group of storytellers who combine words and sound, and writes for the Grand Rapids Times.
She was named Grand Rapids Community College’s Distinguished Alumna in 1992 and received the Salute to Women Award in 2013.
1993 - The Rev. W.L. Patterson
As senior pastor, the Rev. W.L. Patterson led True Light Baptist Church and the Grand Rapids area through times of growth and turmoil.
He was called to True Light in 1954 and served there for 41 years. He led efforts to purchase the church’s current site at 900 Thomas St. SE. He was one of the first ministers to hold services over radio, served on the board of the Salvation Army’s Genesis House and was a member of the Grand Rapids chapters of the Urban League and NAACP. He formed the Ambassadors Club, which started as a Bible study class and became a community service group, and founded Kennedy Day Care Center. He ran Operation Faith, which helped those dealing with substance abuse.
He was committed to social justice issues and participated in a 1963 silent march to protest the Birmingham church bombing that killed four African American girls. Addressing the many white participants that day, he said, “You have marched with us today, but please march with us tomorrow because we need jobs and places to live right here in Grand Rapids.”
1994 - Beverly A. Drake
Beverly Ann Drake was a champion to those in need and a mentor to West Michigan community leaders.
She started her career in 1971 as an administrative aide for the city of Grand Rapids and then worked for the Grand Rapids Area Employment and Training Council. From 1985 to 2011, she served as executive director of Area Community Services Employment and Training, which creates economic opportunities for low-income, elderly, disabled, unemployed and under-employed people.
She served on boards or committees for the NAACP, Urban League, YWCA, YMCA, Project Rehab, the Dyers Ives Foundation, the Michigan Community Action Agency and Community Rebuilders. She was a founding member of the Coalition for Representative Government, and Michigan Works!, where she served on the directors council, established the Beverly A. Drake Essential Service Awards in her honor. She was a member of the Grand Rapids Community College Foundation’s board of directors for 27 years and was named the college’s Distinguished Alumna in 1995.
She passed away in 2021.
1995 - Patricia and Yergan Pulliam
Patricia Pulliam has made two careers shining a light on minority issues and concerns: first as a Grand Rapids Community College educator and later as a newspaper publisher.
She began at what was then Grand Rapids Junior College in the early 1970s as a language arts instructor and advisor to the Black Students Union. She later became chair of the Council for Minority Concerns, an advisory group to GRJC President Richard Calkins that worked to attract, support and retain minority students. The council organized conflict resolution workshops, an annual banquet for minority high school seniors and their parents, and a loan fund to help African American, Hispanic and Native American students.
After a referendum passed in 1991 that created the independent Grand Rapids Community College, she became executive vice president and vice president for instruction and administration. She capped her 30-year college career by serving as interim president in 1998 – the first woman and the first African American to lead GRCC. She received an inaugural Salute to Women Award in 1999.
Working with Cedric Ward, she created the Giants Awards in 1983, which honors exceptional service and achievements by African Americans.
Patricia and Yergan Pulliam purchased The Grand Rapids Times in 1986. Founded in 1957, it is the oldest existing weekly publication targeting the black community in Grand Rapids. Patricia Pulliam is active as both publisher and editor.
1996 - Benjamin H. Logan II
Benjamin H. Logan II was first elected as 61st District Court judge in 1988, after serving 16 years as a defense attorney. Not only did he speak out on issues important to African Americans, he encouraged people to run for public office and acted as a mentor to many in Grand Rapids’ legal community.
He volunteered with the Grand Rapids Bar Association and founded the local chapter of the Floyd Skinner Bar Association, which supports African American lawyers. He is credited with reinvigorating the local NAACP chapter. He was active in the National Bar Association and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2013.
He retired from the bench in 2014 and died in 2018.
1997 - Paul Collins
Paul Collins realized at a young age that he was an artist. Since then, he has used his talent to explore his ancestry, share cultures from around the world and support organizations that help the overlooked.
In 1969, he traveled to West Africa, where he spent two years painting a series focused on Senegalese and Gambians. These critically acclaimed paintings were exhibited around the world, and many were featured in the 1972 film “Save the Children.” In 1972, he was invited to live at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to paint. His work as a liaison between the Sioux and the U.S. government led to him being made a full brother in the tribe.
His art has shined a spotlight on special causes. He created a commemorative poster in honor of the opening of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. His series of paintings focused on the Special Olympics is permanently exhibited at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He was commissioned by Coretta Scott King to create the center’s highest honor, the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize Medal and also created the Challenger 7 space shuttle logo commemorating the first U.S. woman in space.
He has been a member of executive boards for the Kennedy Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Locally, he served as president of the Greater Grand Rapids Fund, raising more than $350,000 from corporations to create a summer jobs program for teens. He joined President Ford and state Sen. Glenn Steil to raise funding to restore the Seidman Youth Center.
1998 - Bishop William Abney
Bishop William Abney shepherded Bethel Pentecostal Church through decades of growth while working to provide education and housing options.
He was elected pastor of Bethel in 1961, when the church was on Eastern Avenue. In just five years, the congregation outgrew the site and moved to Madison Avenue. After two decades of growth and expansions, Bethel Pentecostal Church became Bethel Pentecostal Church Abundant Life Center and constructed new facilities on Lake Drive SE.
In 1997, he established and served as president of William C. Abney Academy on Fulton Street. A charter school authorized by Grand Valley State University, it initially served kindergarten through eighth grade before the middle school closed in 2017. A renowned gospel singer, he also was president of Vision Corp., which worked to address inner-city housing needs.
He retired from Bethel in 2006 and passed away in 2007.
1999- Stephen R. Drew
Stephen R. Drew is a founding partner in the law firm of Drew, Cooper & Anding, practicing in civil rights, personal injury, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, police misconduct and employment law cases. His office represented 122 of the 132 plaintiffs who sued Dr. Larry Nassar, Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.
He has served as president of the Grand Rapids Bar Association and Floyd Skinner Bar Association and on the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association’s executive board.
He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Association’s College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He received the Champion of Justice Award by the Michigan Bar Association and has been listed in its Register of Preeminent Lawyers since 1997. He and his wife, Clarice Smith Drew, were awarded the Hazel R. Lewis Presidential Award by the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP in 2019.
2000 - Faite Mack Sr.
Faite Mack Sr. broke through barriers while building a legacy at Grand Valley State University.
He was a founding faculty member of GVSU’s College of Education and was the first African American promoted to the full rank of professor. He published three books and created a commercial school readiness test for children, while serving as a consultant to many school districts and educational agencies.
A trip to Thailand as a keynote speaker for the U.S. Department of Education was life-changing for him. Shocked at the poverty and constant danger of child trafficking to orphaned and abandoned kids, he became president of the Education for Humanity International Foundation, which provides uniforms, shoes and medical assistance so they can stay in school.
He retired from his 40-year teaching career in 2017 and was named Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Learning in 2018. GVSU’s Dr. Faite Mack and Dr. Thomas Jackson African American Teacher Education Scholarship is named for him.
2001 - The Rev. Charlie Jones
The Rev. Charlie Jones turned a family tragedy into a community-wide example of grace and forgiveness.
He first came to Grand Rapids in 1951 and worked as an auto body reconditioner. He worked as director of Gospel Temple Missionary Baptist Church’s choir before beginning his 36-year preaching career at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in 1976.
In 2000, his brother Willie Jones, 66, was abducted from a bowling alley, beaten and fatally stabbed. He not only forgave the four teenagers found responsible but ministered to their families. It was only after his death in 2015 that his family learned about some of the ways he had helped others – paying rents, providing bail, reaching out to victims of violence, and visiting the incarcerated.
2002 - Nina Lewis-Sleet
Nina Lewis-Sleet, the first African American appointed to the Grand Rapids Board of Education, once walked out of a 1970 meeting after telling her colleagues that they were ignoring issues facing needy and minority children.
Education and community were her twin passions. She worked as a secretary at Henry Park School and as a mentor and counselor for 30 years with Grand Rapids Community College. She coordinated the Giants Awards for about 20 years.
Her nephew, Christopher Paul Curtis, mentions her, her two children and her father in his 1999 Newbery Medal winning novel Bud, Not Buddy.
2003 - The Rev. Lyman S. Parks
The Rev. Lyman S. Parks, pastor of First Community AME Church, achieved a series of “firsts” for Grand Rapids.
In 1968, he was the first African American elected to the City Commission, representing the Third Ward. In 1971, his fellow commissioners chose him to fill the vacant position of mayor; he was the first African American appointed to the job. In 1973, he defeated 10 other candidates to become the first African American elected mayor of Grand Rapids. He is credited with helping the city through great social change and racial tensions. One of his major achievements while in office was leading the renovation and revitalization of downtown.
A statue of him outside City Hall was dedicated in 2013, and the Grand Rapids Public Schools’ administration building is named for him.
2004 - Dr. Edward A. Jones
Dr. Edward A. Jones started his medical practice in Grand Rapids in 1959. He was a doctor in Grand Rapids for 45 years, serving on the staff of St. Mary’s, Blodgett and Butterworth hospitals.
He co-founded Freedom Homes and served on the boards of Clark Retirement Home, the Grand Rapids Community Foundation and Opera Grand Rapids. He was a member of the Urban League, NAACP, the Kent County Medical Society and the American College of Physicians.
2005 - Ella Mary Sims
Community activist Ella Mary Sims advocated for education, housing and resources to help the less fortunate.
When her 10 children were young adults, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Aquinas College, where she became the director of minority student affairs. She worked with the NAACP and the Michigan League of Human Services and was the first woman of color to write a column for The Grand Rapids Press.
In the 1950s, she fought for federal funding for public housing, leading to the construction of Campau Commons. She helped establish the YWCA’s Women’s Resource Center in 1973. As a member of the Salvation Army’s advisory board, she helped plan and raise funds for the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center.
She received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Aquinas in 2001. She died in 2013.
2006 - Leona Spencer
Following her father’s death, Leona Spencer and her family struggled with poverty. She knew she wanted to become a social worker so she could help others in that situation.
She did that in her role as the Kent County Department of Social Services’ supervisor for volunteer services. Her efforts continued even after her retirement in the mid-1980s. She helped found the Sarah Allen Family Neighborhood Center, which housed mentoring, shoe and boot, and food pantry programs. She also was president emeritus of Grand Rapids’ Concerned Citizens Council.
She was named Grand Valley State University’s Distinguished Alumna in 1987 and received the Governor’s Service Award. She died in 2013.
2007 - Elias Lumpkins Jr.
Elias Lumpkins Jr. served others as an educator and a city official.
He earned degrees from Grand Rapids Junior College and Michigan State and Wayne State universities and went into teaching, working at Henry and Campau elementary schools. He then became principal of South Middle School and then shifted his focus to higher education. He worked at what was then Calvin College before becoming GRJC’s director of special services in 1978. He subsequently became the college’s director of financial aid and then dean of student services. During his time at GRJC, he worked with Cedric Ward to develop a diversity program that eventually became the Woodrick Institute for the Study of Racism and Diversity. A former member of the GRCC Foundation board, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1977 and received the college’s Excellence in Education Award in 2001.
He first joined the City Commission in 2006, when he was appointed to the vacant 3rd Ward seat. He was then elected to the seat, eventually retiring in 2015. He was credited with successfully mediating a dispute between Meijer Inc. and residents that led to a new store being built at 28th Street and Kalamazoo Avenue. Mayor George Heartwell gave him a Champion of Diversity Award in 2013, and he received the Helen Jackson Claytor Civil Rights Award in 2018.
2008 - Don Williams Sr.
Don Williams Sr. has focused his career and his retirement on helping the next generations.
He joined Grand Valley State University in 1985 as director of the Minority Business Education Center and was appointed dean of minority affairs four years later. He established several programs to address the needs of minority students majoring in business, science, mathematics and education. His office also sponsored the King-Chavez-Parks College Day for area students in sixth through 12th grades and Start Now!, a college preparatory program for Holland students.
He retired in 2001 so he could spend more time working with the Concerned Citizens Council, a coalition of civic, religious, legal and professional organizations trying to build a Grand Rapids youth center. He has been a member of the Grand Rapids Rotary Club, the Economic Club of Greater Grand Rapids, the Minority Affairs Council for Michigan Universities, the West Michigan Coalition for African American Men, and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.
GVSU’s Don Williams Sr. Dean Emeritus Multicultural Business Education Scholarship is named in his honor.
2009 - Nolan Groce
Nolan Groce’s keen business mind brought him success as the president of L&G Industrial Products, a supplier of office furniture components. He also used it to help his community.
He and his wife, Julia, funded the College Kids, a four-week summer camp that allowed elementary school students to explore higher education. He also mentored teens through the Kent County Youth Companion Program. He led a capital campaign that raised $200,000 for renovations to his church, First Community AME. He also helped the church work through federal regulations so Allen Manor apartment complex could be built for low-income seniors.
He died in 2012. Cornerstone University’s Nolan Groce Business Leadership Award is named in his honor.
2010 - Mary A. Edmond
While Mary A. Edmond has retired from the Grand Rapids Public Schools, she hasn’t stopped teaching. Her classroom has just gotten bigger, encompassing almost everyone she meets.
She worked for years as GRPS’ director of multicultural education and gender equity. Her current passion is black history, especially West Michigan’s Underground Railroad sites. She was key to efforts to get historical recognition for Civil War veteran Isaac Bailey, a former slave who is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. The National Park Service has recognized Bailey to its National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.
She was president of the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission, which successfully lobbied for a law that preserves buildings or places monuments at significant Underground Railroad sites.
She also has been active in the Michigan Black History Network and the Grand Rapids Sister City International committee.
2011 - Reuben Smartt
Known as the “Traveling Disciple,” Reuben Smartt had enough experiences to last a dozen lifetimes.
He was a World War II veteran, one of the first African Americans to serve in the Marines. He and the other men in the Montford Point Marines later received the Congressional Gold Medal.
A talented athlete, he came to Grand Rapids to play shortstop with the Black Sox, a Grand Rapids-based Negro League team. He got as far as the Cleveland Indians’ Triple-A team.
He then chose to pursue teaching, earning a master’s degree from Michigan State University. He was a teacher and principal at South Middle School for almost three decades. He also mentored youth through the Upward Bound and Running Start programs he directed and coached an inner-city baseball team.
He died in 2017.
2012 - Dr. Marvin L. Sapp
Dr. Marvin L. Sapp has shared the word of God in sermon and in song.
He started singing in church at the age of 4 and has never stopped. He started recording with the group Commissioned and transitioned to a solo career in 1996. “Thirsty,” released in 2007, is his best-selling album, with more than a million copies sold. With the release of “Here I Am” in 2010, he became the all-time highest charting gospel artist in Billboard’s history. He was named BET’s Best Gospel Artist in 2008 and 2010 and won a GMA Dove Award in 2011 for Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year (“The Best in Me”).
He was senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church in Grand Rapids, which he and his late wife, MaLinda, founded. He now serves as senior pastor of The Chosen Vessel in Fort Worth, Texas. He has an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Aenon Bible College and an honorary Doctor of Ministry from Friends International Christian University.
2013 - Ingrid Scott-Weekly
Working for the city of Grand Rapids, Ingrid Scott-Weekly made lasting changes to how it does business.
She moved to the city after obtaining her law degree from the University of California to work for Legal Aid of West Michigan. She then worked in administration for Grand Rapids Public Schools, Grand Rapids Junior College and Grand Valley State University.
In 1989, she became the city’s equal opportunity director. Under her leadership, equal business opportunity policies for construction and purchasing were approved and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Alliance Against Hate Crimes were established. She considered bringing a Rosa Parks statue to downtown as one of her most memorable achievements.
She retired as the city’s managing director of Administrative Services in 2012. She died in 2015.
2014 - Jeffery J. Kimbrel
In 2020, a fire destroyed the business that Jeffery J. Kimbrel had spent almost four decades building as well as the social club he started in 2002.
But that catastrophe didn’t keep him from doing what he has strived to do every day: help others. Weeks after the fire, he and friends were organizing Easter cards and treats for Clark Retirement Community residents.
Shortly after arriving in Grand Rapids, the Detroit native was laid off from his job. An opportunity to make money painting a friend’s rental properties led him to start Painting by Jeff in 1984. Community service has always been part of his business plan, and he has organized and volunteered at street fairs, holiday events, after-school tutoring, and school supply and food basket giveaways. Many of his fellow volunteers come from The Sophisticated Gentlemen Club – later renamed The Sophisticated Gentlemen Club and Ladies Auxiliary.
Since the fire, the club has used a relatively undamaged part of the Eastern Avenue building, but that’s about to change. In August, the Grand Rapids Planning Commission approved a permit that will allow the club to relocate to another building on the property, which should soon mean its business – and community service – as usual, for the group and Jeffery Kimbrel.
2015 - The Rev. Dr. Clifton Rhodes Jr.
The Rev. Dr. Clifton Rhodes Jr. spent 45 of his 55 years in ministry at one place: Messiah Missionary Baptist Church, Grand Rapids’ oldest African American Baptist church.
Under his leadership, Messiah Missionary increased its outreach to the underserved in the area. Church members organized health fairs and screenings, neighborhood improvement programs, job training and resume workshops, a food pantry, counseling services, mentoring and scholarship programs, and school supply and holiday toy collections. The Rev. Dr. Rhodes is credited for his advocacy for African American children in schools and his partnership with police to combat street violence.
He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2013 and had to step down from his ministry in 2017. He died in 2018.
2016 -- Teresa Weatherall Neal
A product of Grand Rapids Public Schools, Teresa Weatherall Neal rose to lead – and transform – the district.
Her employment with GRPS started as a student worker. She then worked as an administrative assistant, coordinator of compliance and assistant superintendent before becoming superintendent in 2012. Her GRPS Transformation Plan is credited with increasing the district’s graduation rates and reducing absenteeism. She also implemented professional development focused on equity and inclusion, school choices, and building-community partnerships. Under her leadership, enrollment increased for the first time in 20 years.
Since retiring in 2019, she has served as chair of the Grand Rapids Promise Zone Authority, which allows eligible high school seniors to attend Grand Rapids Community College for free.
She was named GRCC’s Distinguished Alumna in 2019. In 2022, she received the Edward J. Frey Distinguished Achievement Award from Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes and the Equity Champion Award from the Grand Rapids African American Health Institute.
2017 - Larry Johnson
Larry Johnson started his career making streets safer. Now he does the same for schools.
He served in the police departments of Benton Harbor, Lansing and Grand Rapids, receiving a Meritorious Service Award from the GRPD.
He joined Grand Rapids Public Schools in 1997 as executive director of public safety and school security. Now assistant to the superintendent and executive director of public safety, he oversees 15 special police officers and 25 security officers. He is also in charge of the district’s management information systems and oversees risk management, Freedom of Information Act requests, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act compliance and other internal investigations.
2018 - Ellen James
Ellen James has advocated for the marginalized and for increasing educational opportunities through many roles with many organizations.
Her public service includes 30 years with Grand Rapids’ Equal Opportunity Department and 25 years as a founding member of Grand Rapids Community College’s board of trustees. She is also a founding member of the Coalition for Representative Government, which has helped add diversity to the city, school board and judicial positions. She is also involved with Kent County Black Elected Officials, Grand Rapids Police Department advisory committees, the Grand Rapids Community Foundation African American Heritage Club and the NAACP. She serves on the GRCC Foundation’s board, and the Ellen M. James Trailblazer Scholarship is named in her honor.
Grand Rapids Magazine selected her as one of its “Top 10 Leaders With a Mission,” and she was the first recipient of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives’ Nelson Mandela Presidential Award. She also has received the Michigan Women’s Foundation Women of Courage and the YWCA Tribute to Women Advocacy awards.
2019 - Michael B. Johnson Sr.
Michael B. Johnson Sr. helped countless families through difficult times, through his mortuaries and through his community service.
He became the owner of Brown’s Funeral Home, Grand Rapids’ oldest African American-owned funeral parlor, in 1985. In 2008, he purchased Toombs Funeral Home in Muskegon Heights. He and his businesses contributed to many children’s activities and regularly sponsored the Feeding America food trucks. He was instrumental in the creation of the Milo M. Brown Scholarship.
Among his many accolades are the Athena Award, Wayne State University’s Richard M. Kelly Memorial Award, the Network Magazine Achiever Award, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Business Achievement Award and the Chamber of Commerce Achievement Award.
He retired from business in 2018 and died in 2020.
2020 - The Rev. Nathaniel Moody
The Rev. Nathaniel Moody works to lift up Grand Rapids through his ministry and his civic service.
The pastor at Brown-Hutcherson Ministries, he was a member of the Grand Rapids Board of Education from 2013 to 2017 and has represented the 3rd Ward on the City Commission since 2018. He has also served on the Grand Rapids Police Department’s advisory committee, the Children’s Advocacy Council, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the Grand Rapids Area Association of Pastors and the Grand Rapids Community College Foundation’s board of directors.
He has received the Celebration of Soul Marvin and MaLinda Sapp Legacy Award, Bethany Christian Services’ Leadership Award, the United Methodist Community Achievement Award, and the Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award from the Boy Scouts of America.
2021 – No Award
2022 - Bishop Dennis J. McMurray
When other churches said “no,” Bishop Dennis J. McMurray said “yes.”
The family of Patrick Lyoya, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in April, was running into obstacles finding a funeral location because of the political turmoil and national attention surrounding his death. Bishop McMurray presided over the service at Renaissance Church of God in Christ because a family was hurting and needed comfort.
He was Renaissance’s founder and senior pastor for 30 years and served on the boards of many organizations, including Spectrum Health, Bethany Christian Services, Kent County Community Mental Health, the Michigan Community Corrections Board and the Michigan Clergy Task Force.
Grand Valley State University’s Seidman School of Business named him Alumni of the Year in 2007. He and his wife, Dr. E. Jean McMurray, established scholarships at GVSU and Grand Rapids Community and Muskegon Community colleges.
He died almost a month after receiving the Giant Among Giants Award.
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