Grace Lee Boggs

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Grace Lee Boggs (2012)

Grace Lee Boggs (born Grace Chin Lee ; born June 27, 1915 in Providence , Rhode Island , † October 5, 2015 in Detroit , Michigan ) was an American writer , civil rights activist and feminist . She worked politically in the 1940s and 1950s with CLR James and Raya Dunayevskaya . In the 1960s, she and her husband James Boggs († 1993) took their own political direction. Boggs lived in Detroit from 1954 until her death.

Life

Grace Chin Lee was born in 1915 to Chinese immigrants . Her father ran a restaurant in Times Square . She earned a BA from Barnard College in 1935 and a Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College . In 1954 she came to Detroit, where she married the African American trade unionist James Boggs. Together they worked in grassroots movements and in 1974 published the book Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century .

In 1992 they founded the multicultural, intergenerational program "Detroit Summer" with Shea Howell, among others , in order to rebuild Detroit's social structure from scratch. The event took place for the 14th time in 2006. At the time, Grace Lee Boggs was working with the Detroit City of Hope campaign and Beloved Communities initiative, and writing for the Michigan Citizen weekly .

Her autobiography Living for Change (Minnesota 1998) is widely used as a textbook for Asian-American studies, Detroit regional studies, and social history.

In October 2014, the activist announced she was dying in a Detroit hospice.

Honors (selection)

  • 1993: Human Rights Day Award, Center of Peace and Conflict Studies, Wayne State University
  • 1998: Zenobia Paine Drake Award, Black Family Development
  • 2000: Discipleship Award from Groundwork for a Just World.
  • 2000: Distinguished Alumnae Award, Barnard College
  • 2000: Chinese American Pioneers Award, Organization of Chinese Americans
  • 2001: Women's Lifetime Achievement, Anti-Defamation League.
  • 2002: Legacy Award, Museum of Chinese in America, New York City
  • 2004: Grassroots Peacebuilder Award, Peace Action of Michigan
  • 2004: Senior Celebrity Award, Bridging Communities, Detroit
  • 2004: Doctor of Humane Letters degree, College of Wooster
  • 2004: Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues Award
  • 2004: Lifetime Commitment Award, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights
  • 2005: Lifetime Achievement Award, Michigan Women's Federation
  • 2005: Community Honoree Award, WAND (Women's Action for New Directions)
  • 2005: Urban Woman Writer in Residence, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Wayne State University
  • 2005: Lifetime Achievement Award, Detroit City Council
  • 2007: A Detroit News Michiganian of the Year
  • Plaque of honor in the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York
  • 2007 Doctor of Humane Letters degree, Kalamazoo College

bibliography

  • 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.
  • Conversations in Maine: Exploring Our Nation's Future (with James Boggs, Freddy Paine and Lyman Paine). Boston: South End Press, 1978.
  • Living for Change: An Autobiography . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

literature

  • Paul Buhle: An Asian-American Tale . In: Monthly Review . January 1999, pp. 47-50.
  • Grace Lee Boggs: Living for Change: An Autobiography . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1998.
  • Martin Glaberman: The Revolutionary Optimist: Remembering CLR James. In: Against the Current . # 72, January / February 1998
  • Neil Fettes: Living for Change . In: Red & Black Notes . # 7, winter 1999

Web links

Commons : Grace Lee Boggs  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nancy Kaffer: Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit activist, dies at age 100. In: freep.com , Detroit Free Press, October 5, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Boggs, Grace Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lee, Grace Chin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author, anti-racist civil rights activist, and feminist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Providence , Rhode Island , United States
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 2015
Place of death Detroit , Michigan , United States