Living For Change
An Autobiography
Grace Lee Boggs

Foreword by Ossie Davis

"Grace Lee Boggs has made a fundamental difference in
keeping alive the traditions of the struggles for freedom and
democracy." Cornel West

"More than a deeply moving memoir, this is a book of
revelation. Grace Lee Boggs, Chinese American, middle
class, highly educated, discovers through her encounters
with remarkable rebels, blue collars as well as
philosophers, where the body is buried: who is doing what
to whom in our society. It is an adventure that is truly
liberating." Studs Terkel

"It seems to me that the life of Grace Lee Boggs has been
an exercise of will. Through sheer will, without waiting for
social conditions to come around and without waiting to
explore her identity, she turned her back on who she was
and barged into new territories. She was a woman who
barged into men's territory; she was a Chinese who barged
into black territory; she was an intellectual who barged into
workers territory." from a letter from Louis Tsen
"Throught these pages walk causes, gatherings,
confrontations, movements, and the men and women who
made them: workers, and students, and committees of the
People; Christians, Black Muslims, Black Panthers, Labor
Unions; C.L.R. James. Rev. Cleage, Rev. Cleveland,
Coleman Young, Malcolm and Martin; artists, musicians,
poets, actors, strikers, and seekers of revolution." from the
foreword by Ossie Davis
Living for Change is a sweeping account of the life of an
untraditional radical from the end of the thirties, through
the cold war, the civil rights era, and the rise of Black
Power, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers to the
present efforts to rebuild our crumbling urban communities.
This fascinating autobiography traces the story of a woman
who transcended class and racial boundaries to pursue her
passionate belief in a better society.
Grace Lee Boggs was raised in New York City during a
time when her father was not allowed to buy land for their
home because he was Chinese. Educated at Barnard and
Bryn Mawr, Boggs was in her twenties when radical
politics beckoned, and she was inspired to become a
revolutionary focusing on the black community.
During her early years as an activist in New York, Boggs
began a twenty-year friendship and collaboration with C. L.
R. James, the brilliant and influential West Indian Marxist
to whom she devotes a revelatory chapter of this book. In
1953, she moved to Detroit where, she writes, "radical
history had been made and could be made again." It was
also the home of James Boggs, an African American auto
worker (and later author and revolutionary theoretician)
who would become one of the movement's freshest and
most persuasive voices, as well as Grace's husband.
Beginning with their work together on the newsletter
Correspondence, Grace and James formed the core of a
network that over the years would include Malcolm X,
Lyman Paine, Ping Ferry, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee,
Kwame Nkrumah, Stokely Carmichael, and inner-city
youth.
Rich in the personalities and anecdotes of twentieth-century
progressive activism, Living for Change is an involving and
inspiring look at a remarkable woman who continues to
dedicate her life to social justice.
Grace Lee Boggs is a first-generation Chinese American
who has been a speaker, writer, and movement activist in
the African American community for fifty-five years.

ISBN 0-8166-2955-2 Paper $20.00
344 pages 30 black-and-white photos 5 7/8 x 9
Send $20.00 &$ Five for shipping and Handling
BoggsCenter
3061 Field st
Detroit, MI 48214