Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1915 to parents from China. She cited her mother as an early feminist who inspired her in her childhood. Boggs and her family later moved to Queens, New York. At 16, she started at Barnard College, where she was only one of three students of color. She graduated from Barnard with a BA in Philosophy, and went on to earn a PhD in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College.

Despite her qualifications, Boggs struggled finding work, as employers refused to hire Asian Americans. She finally found work in the University of Chicago’s philosophy library, but was paid an extremely low wage. It was in Chicago that she began her heavy involvement in grassroots activism and advocated on behalf of workers and tenants.

She continued her advocacy in Detroit, where she met and married James “Jimmy” Boggs, a fellow activist and writer. Together, they founded the Detroit Asian Political Alliance, and also became involved in the civil rights and Black Power Movement. A friend of Malcolm X’s, she once tried to convince him to run for Senate.

Grace’s activism did not stop later in life, as she founded both Detroit Summer, a community-based youth empowerment program, and the James and Grace Lee Boggs School, a community-based charter school. After a lifetime dedicated to advocacy and her community, Grace Lee Boggs passed away in 2015, at the age of 100.

📸: Boggs Center