Grace Lee Boggs Bio
Grace Lee Boggs is an activist, writer and speaker whose more
than sixty years of political involvement encompass the major
U.S. social movements of this century: Labor, Civil rights,
Black Power, Asian American, Women's and Environmental
Justice.
Born in Providence, R.I. of Chinese immigrant parents in
l915, Grace received her B.A. from Barnard College in l935
and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in l940.
In the l940s and l950s she worked with West Indian Marxist
historian C.L.R.James and in l953 she came to Detroit where
she married James Boggs, African American labor activist,
writer and strategist. Working together in grassroots groups
and projects, they were partners for over 40 years until James
death in July l993. Their book, Revolution and Evolution in
the Twentieth Century, was published by Monthly Review
Press in l974.
In 1992, with James Boggs, Shea Howell and others, she founded
DETROIT SUMMER, a multicultural, intergenerational youth program
to rebuild, redefine and respirit Detroit from the ground up, which
completed its twelfth season in the summer of 2003. Currently she is
active in Detroit Summer and with the Freedom Schoolers, and writes
for the weekly Michigan Citizen.
Her autobiography, Living for Change, published by the University
of Minnesota Press in March l998, now in its second printing, is
widely used in university classes on social movements and
autobiography writing.
Her many awards include:
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.
A plaque in her honor is displayed at the National Women's Hall of Fame
in Seneca Falls, New York.
update 7-16-05
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