Elder voices: Nonprofit co-founder proud of work tackling racism
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — For the last 30 years, Victoria Proctor Gibbs has been pursuing anti-racist transformation in West Michigan and beyond.
Gibbs is one of the co-founders of , also known as CORE, formerly CORR.
In the third and final installment of News 8's Elder Voices series, Gibbs sat down with Brittany Flowers to share the challenges she faced growing up in this area, how she's worked to make African Americans feel more accepted, and how she's seen the area change over the decades.
Elder voices: Longtime crossing guard talks about progress A: 'Well, I was a part of a denominational effort to become anti-racist and we worked with an organization out of Chicago called Crossroads and they taught us an analysis on understanding racism and it became something that explained a lot of my past, because I was a product of the Christian schools here and I was the first (African American) to graduate from Oakdale Christian and the second to graduate from Grand Rapids Christian High and we had no language for what I went through during my high school years, my junior high school years. So, going to that workshop for the first time gave me a language that I was not familiar with, and it helped me to interact with my sons in a way that I could help them understand the things that just were not a part of what I was taught.'A: 'Well, when I was younger, this community was very Black. I think that Wealthy Street has the starkest before and after … take a look and it was very segregated. And it's a surprise for me, living in Los Angeles for 20 years and then coming back and watching the change because the change hadn't really started when I got back, but I've been able to watch the neighborhood gentrify and become a place that I never would have imagined.'
Elder voices: After years of service, retired GRPS teacher cherishes people A: 'Well, as soon as I heard that question, I would have to say my visit to Ghana, going to the slave castle, had the most profound impact, because it just centered all the things I had heard and gave me the eye gate to be a part of that. And the thing that blew me away the most going through that slave castle was the fact that there was a church right in the middle of the — I want to say atrium — but it was all outside, and you could see the church and from the outside, and there was a door that led down to the capitalist quarters. So it was extremely impactful for me, especially since my educational process didn't include any of that information.'A: 'It clarifies a lot. I can remember that my sons were teenagers, I have three of them — they were 14, 15, and 16 — when I saw Amistad and it was a jaw-dropper for me, because I had no idea what that route across the Atlantic was all about and so that really opened my eyes. And I think not long after that, I saw the movie Malcolm X. This is back in 1992 and I can remember that it was extremely sobering, having not heard anything about the journey of Malcolm X. I was, in fact, taught that Malcolm X was a bad guy — you don't want to know anything about him. But the more I found out about him, the more my spirit connected with his spirit. So I think that resonance with somebody who was very radical against the circumstances of the times had the most impact on me with regard to why it was important for me to realize that my desires aligned with some of my forefathers. Being not content with the circumstances as they were and not willing to just watch. And it was around that time that I entered into the work that I'm doing now. So it's been about 30 years since I've been doing this.'
Why is Black History Month the shortest of the year? A: 'Yes, because I'm able to see the change that people are making in their life. I was able to be with somebody just this past weekend that showed me a note that I wrote him 20 years ago and it's in his wallet and to be able to know that I had something to say or some impact on somebody that held on to a note that I left him said, OK, just keep on doing it. You never know who is going to be impacted. But I'm realizing that it takes time. Some people hear about the past and dismiss it. Other people linger with it and say, OK, I gotta join a movement that is going to make a difference and I invite them into the movement of what we do at CORE often.'A: 'Just because you don't have the hard times that my generation had or my parents had, does not mean the journey is over because the sad part that I see now is that racism has gone underground. We can see it sometimes, but there's so much insidious policy-making and systemic issues that are still real and I'm always determining the degree that it's real with regard to whether or not I'm just welcomed into the conversation, or if I'm allowed to lead the conversation. That's when I find out, do they just want a photo-op or do they want to hear what I've been learning over the years?'
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