Local History Thursday: Former Officer Janielle Westermire’s Unique Perspective on Black Lives Matter

As a former sheriff’s deputy and an African-American woman involved with community and educational efforts through Black Citizens and Friends, Janielle Westermire has a unique and very personal perspective on race relations, and on the Black Lives Matter protests that gripped the United States following the 2020 death of George Floyd. In her interview with […]

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Local History Thursday: Evoking Grand Junction’s History with Radio History Theater

In 1981, coinciding with Grand Junction’s centennial celebration, the Mesa County Oral History Project (MCOHP) produced forty-eight radio plays about local history. Over forty-eight weeks, these plays aired on radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA, with the last play broadcasting on August 21, 1982. Now, the Radio History Theater plays have been digitized and […]

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Local History Thursday: The Teller Institute, Grand Junction’s American Indian School

With the gruesome discovery of the bodies of First Nations children on the grounds of residential schools in Canada, people are also turning their attention to American Indian schools in the United States. These boarding schools operated in the late 1800’s and 1900’s. They were dedicated to the forced acculturation of Native American children, who […]

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Local History Thursday: Shannon Robinson And Right & Wrong

Shannon Robinson has led a brave and transformational life in Grand Junction. She overcame racism from some fellow students to become the first African-American president of student government at Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University). In the midst of the AIDS epidemic, she helped stage on-campus demonstrations to educate students about the dangers of […]

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