Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs was a human rights activist and author, who influenced and inspired the world on important causes like civil rights, labor rights, education reform, feminism, and environmentalism for seven decades. Grace Lee was also a philosopher who founded community organizations and political movements, marched against racism, lectured widely on human rights, and authored books on her evolving vision of a revolution in America. 

Born in 1915 in Rhode Island to Chinese immigrants, Boggs was raised with a deep understanding of the value of education and community organizing. She earned degrees in philosophy and later went to work alongside prominent activists such as C.L.R James and Martin Luther King, Jr. Throughout her journey, she witnessed the struggles and injustices faced by marginalized communities. She learned that change cannot be achieved through one single approach or ideology, but rather through a combination of different strategies and tactics. She realized that true transformation can only come from within communities themselves, by empowering individuals to take action and make a difference in their own lives.  

In 1953, she moved to Detroit and married James Boggs, a Black autoworker, writer and radical activist. She dedicated her life to promoting social justice and advocating for the empowerment of marginalized communities in Detroit, where she lived for over six decades. In the summer of 1963, Boggs joined the Great Walk to Freedom in Detroit, a hundred-thousand-person march headlined by Martin Luther King, Jr. She then founded food cooperatives and community support groups for the elderly, organized unemployed workers and fought utility shut offs. Together, she and her husband founded organizations such as Detroit Summer and the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center, which aimed to empower young people and build a more just society. In 2013 they opened a charter elementary school, the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit, Michigan. 

Her legacy lies not only in her tireless activism but in her commitment to education too – sharing her wisdom with young activists from all walks of life. Until her death in 2015 at the age of 100, Boggs remained an influential figure in American politics and her work is still recognized today as an integral contribution to progressive movements across the country.