Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and

Raya Dunayevskaya Raya Dunayevskaya (born Raya Shpigel, ; May 1, 1910 - June 9, 1987), later Rae Spiegel, also known by the pseudonym Freddie Forest, was the American founder of the philosophy of Marxist humanism in the United States. At one time Leon Trotsky's s ...

in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, she and James Boggs, her husband of some forty years, took their own political direction. By 1998, she had written four books, including an autobiography. In 2011, still active at the age of 95, she wrote a fifth book, ''The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century'', with Scott Kurashige and published by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...

. She is regarded as a key figure in the

Asian American Movement The Asian American movement was a sociopolitical movement in which the widespread grassroots effort of Asian Americans affected racial, social and political change in the U.S, reaching its peak in the late 1960s to mid-1970s. During this period Asia ...

Family and childhood

Early life

Boggs was born on June 27, 1915, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, above her father's restaurant. Her Chinese given name was Yu Ping (玉平), meaning "Jade Peace." She was the daughter of Chin Lee (1870–1965) and his second wife, Yin Lan Ng. Both her parents were originally from

Taishan, Guangdong Taishan (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Toishan or Toisan, in local dialect as Hoisan, and formerly known as Xinning or Sunning (), is a county-level city in the southwest of Guangdong province, China. It is administered as part o ...

in Qing dynasty China. Bogg's sibling include one sister, Katherine, and four brothers, Edward, Philip, Robert, and Harry. Chin Lee and Yin Lan Ng immigrated from China to the United States city of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

in 1911.

Education

On a scholarship, Boggs went on to study at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where, through professor Paul Weiss, she says she was influenced by the writings of

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...

and

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

. She graduated in 1935, and then in 1940 received her Ph.D. in philosophy from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, where she wrote her dissertation on

George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded a ...

Partnership with James Boggs

In 1953, Grace Lee Boggs married James Boggs, an American political activist and auto worker. They were married for 40 years until James Boggs' death in 1993. Together, they published activist literature, books, and founded the

National Organization for an American Revolution (NOAR) National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

. Ibram X. Kendi writes that together, Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs "built a durable partnership that was at once marital, intellectual, and political. It was a genuine partnership of equals, remarkable not only for its unique pairing or for its longevity, but also for its capacity to continually generate theoretical reflection and modes of activist engagement."

Activism

Facing significant barriers in the academic world in the 1940s, she took a low-paying job at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Philosophy Library. As a result of their activism on tenants' rights, she joined the revolutionary left Workers Party, known for its

Third Camp The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism that aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp". The term arose early during ...

position regarding the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, which it saw as

bureaucratic collectivist Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and other similar states in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (such as North Korea). ...

. At this point, she began the trajectory that she would follow for the rest of her life: a focus on struggles in the African-American community. She met C. L. R. James during a speaking engagement in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and moved to New York. She met many activists and cultural figures such as author

Richard Wright Richard Wright may refer to: Arts * Richard Wright (author) (1908–1960), African-American novelist * Richard B. Wright (1937–2017), Canadian novelist * Richard Wright (painter) (1735–1775), marine painter * Richard Wright (artist) (born 19 ...

and dancer Katharine Dunham. She also translated into English many of the essays in

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's ''

Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 The ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (german: Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844), also referred to as the ''Paris Manuscripts'' (') or as the ''1844 Manuscripts'', are a series of notes written between Apri ...

'' for the first time. She soon joined the Johnson–Forest Tendency led by James,

and Lee. They focused more centrally on marginalized groups such as women, people of color and youth as well as breaking with the notion of the vanguard party. While originally operating as a tendency of the Workers Party, they briefly rejoined the Socialist Workers Party before leaving the Trotskyist left entirely. The Johnson–Forest Tendency also characterized the USSR as State Capitalist. She wrote for the Johnson–Forest Tendency under the party pseudonym Ria Stone. She married African-American auto worker and political activist James Boggs in 1953. That same year she and James moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, where they continued to focus on

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

and Black Power Movement activism. As scholar Brian Doucet articulates in his interview conducted with Boggs in 2014, "Living in Detroit influenced the Boggs' thinking on the role of automation, capital flight, and racism." Boggs helped found the Detroit Asian Political Alliance in 1970. When C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya split in the mid-1950s into Correspondence Publishing Committee led by James and News and Letters led by Dunayevskaya, Grace and James supported Correspondence Publishing Committee that James tried to advise while in exile in Britain. In 1962 the Boggses broke with James and continued Correspondence Publishing Committee along with Lyman Paine and Freddy Paine, while James' supporters, such as Martin Glaberman, continued on as a new if short-lived organization, Facing Reality. The ideas that formed the basis for the 1962 split can be seen as reflected in James Boggs's book, ''The American Revolution: Pages from a Black Worker's Notebook''. Grace unsuccessfully attempted to convince

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

to run for the United States Senate in 1964. In these years, Boggs wrote a number of books, including ''Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century'' with her husband and focused on community activism in Detroit where she became a widely known activist. In 1979m Grace Lee Boggs and husband James Boggs contributed to the founding of National Organization for an American Revolution (NOAR). In the introduction to an extensive interview, scholar Karín Aguilar-San Juan describes one aspect of Boggs' activism: "Although she believes that racial and gender inequality will always demand struggle, Grace remains adamant that civil- rights- based activism will not lead to the farreaching changes in society that a higher state of human evolution requires." She goes on to explain that Boggs' "political path" has been "guided by her study of global and historical change, hand- in- hand with daily participation in and observation of the struggles of people at the grassroots level." In this interview Boggs discusses her relationship to her Asian American heritage, her experience with the Black Power movement, and many other topics. She founded

Detroit Summer Detroit Summer is a multi-racial and intergenerational collective based at The Boggs Center in Detroit, Michigan, with the goal to empower local youth to improve their communities. The program was founded in 1992 by James Boggs, Grace Lee Boggs, ...

, a multicultural intergenerational youth program, in 1992, and was the recipient of numerous awards. Additionally, Boggs' home in Detroit also serves as headquarters for the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. The Boggs Center was founded in the early 1990s by friends of Grace Lee and James Boggs and continues to be a hub for community-based projects, grassroots organizing, and social activism both locally and nationally.

Death

Grace Lee Boggs died on October 5, 2015 at 100 years old. An obituary in the ''New York Times'' reported Boggs "waged war of inspiration for civil rights, labor, feminism, the environment and other causes for seven decades with an unflagging faith that revolutionary justice was around the corner." President Barak Obama issued a statement on Bogg's death, praising her work for Detroit and for "her leadership in the civil rights movement, to her ideas that challenged us all to lead meaningful lives." He added that Boggs "understood the power of community organizing at its core."

Legacy

Honors

* In 1999, Boggs was inducted into the

National Women's Hall of Fame The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees. Induc ...

* In 2013, The James and Grace Lee Boggs School was opened in Detroit, Michigan. The Boggs School teaches students from kindergarten to eighth grade, and among its core values are critical thinking, collaboration, and self-determination. * In 2014, The Social Justice Hub at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

’s newly opened University Center was named the Baldwin Rivera Boggs Center after activists Boggs,

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...

, and

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender activism, transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in LGBT history in New Yor ...

. * In 2014, Boggs was inducted into the

Michigan Women's Hall of Fame The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (MWHOF) honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary, who have been associated with the U.S. state of Michigan. The hall of fame was founded in 1983 by Gladys Beckwith and is sponsored by the Mic ...

. *

Grace Lee Boggs We Follow The Path Less Traveled The City at The Crossroads of History

Boggs has received honorary doctorates from the University of Michigan, Wooster College, Kalamazoo College and Wayne State University.

Representation in media

*''In Love And Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs (''by Stephen M. Ward (The University of North Carolina Press, 2016) *''We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United State''s (by Naomi Hirahana) (Philadelphia:

Running Press Kids Running Press is an American publishing company and member of the Perseus Books Group. The publisher's offices are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with many of the corporate functions taking place in Perseus' New York City headquarters. ...

, 2022

Biopic

* American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs''American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs''
website. **In 2013, Filmmaker Grace Lee produced a biographical documentary on Grace Lee Boggs life, activism and philosophy.

Bibliography

Books

*''George Herbert Mead: Philosopher of the Social Individual'' (New York : King's Crown Press, 1945)
''The Invading Socialist Society''
(with C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya) (1947) *''State Capitalism and World Revolution'' (with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya) (1950). *''Facing Reality'' (with C. L. R. James and Cornelius Castoriadis). (Detroit: Correspondence, 1958). *''Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century.'' (with James Boggs). (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974). *''Women and the Movement to Build a New America'' (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1977). * Grace Lee Boggs autographing her latest book at the Chinese Cultural Center

Grace Lee Boggs autographing her latest book at the Chinese Cultural Center

''Conversations in Maine: Exploring Our Nation's Future'' (with James Boggs, Freddy Paine, and Lyman Paine). (Boston:

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 by Michael Albert, Lydia Sargent, Juliet Schor, among others, in Boston's South End. It published books written by political a ...

, 1978). *''Conditions of Peace: An Inquiry: Security, Democracy, Ecology, Economics, Community'' (Washington DC: Expro Press, 1991) *'' Living for Change: An Autobiography'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
''The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century''
(with Scott Kurashige). (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011)

Interviews and appearances

* In 2005, Boggs spoke at the Conference on Activism, Ethnic Studies, Diaspora and Beyond held at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. The speech was which was later reprinted in ''CR: New Centennial Review''. * In 2012, her speech with

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

at the Pauley Ballroom in

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

titled" On Revolution: A Conversation Between Grace Lee Boggs and Angela Davis" was excerpted in the journal ''Race, Poverty, and the Environment.''

References

External links

The Boggs Center Home Page
*
The James and Grace Lee Boggs Papers, archival collection
at the Walter P. Reuther Library
Obituary by Christian Hogsbjerg
in ''Socialist Review'', 407 (November 2015).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boggs, Grace Lee 1915 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Activists for African-American civil rights American centenarians American Marxists American memoirists American women memoirists American political writers American socialists American women activists Women Marxists American women's rights activists American writers of Chinese descent American anti-racism activists Barnard College alumni Michigan socialists Rhode Island socialists Writers from Detroit Writers from Providence, Rhode Island Women centenarians American socialist feminists American people of Chinese descent American women writers of Chinese descent