Grace Lee Boggs (1915–2015) is what you would call “a real one”. From civil rights and Black Power to labor, feminist, and environmental justice, the trailblazing Chinese American activist worked decades in shaping some of the most transformative movements in the country’s history. Based in Detroit for the majority of her life with her fellow activist husband James Boggs. She co-founded Detroit Summer in 1992: an intergenerational, multicultural youth program aimed at rebuilding and revitalizing communities in Detroit. She championed the idea of “revolution as evolution,” which urged communities to create change through education, imagination, and grassroots action.
Filmmaker Grace Lee who recently directed the doc BTS Army: Forever We Are Young (currently doing another run in select theaters in Los Angeles), released the film American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs in 2013. The doc, which included a 98-year-old Boggs, took us on a journey through her 75 years of incredible activism. In the film she “challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively and redefine revolution for our times”.
Perhaps it could be a guide for us in 2025.
