About James and Grace Lee Boggs
James Boggs (1919-1993) was an African American autoworker and labor organizer from Marion Junction, Alabama. He was raised in the rural South under Jim Crow, then moved to Detroit and worked for Chrysler during the height of industrial-era prosperity. Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) was a Chinese American philosopher born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in New York City. After obtaining her PhD, Grace was spurned by academia and made her home in the Black community and movement. Jimmy and Grace married in 1953. Together, they worked to build the movements for Civil Rights and Black Power, as well as cross-racial and international solidarity. The Boggses foresaw the devastation Detroit and the United States would face owing to automation, white supremacy, militarism, authoritarianism, and the emphasis on technological over human development. Through writing and organizing, they struggled to move the nation beyond the stage of rebellion against an unjust system by encouraging organizers and all members of society to see revolution as the exercise of self-government and an evolutionary advance for humanity.
Grace
"Every crisis needs to be viewed as an opportunity to bring about profound changes in our society. In these desperate times, we must come together as inventors and discoverers committed to creating ideas and practice, vision and projects to help heal civilization. My ongoing work in Detroit and encounters with people all over the world engaged in visionary organizing continue to provide me with assurance that we have the power within ourselves to create the world anew."
Jimmy
"I don’t believe nobody in the country knows more about running this country than me. I’m saying, you better think that way. You better get out of this “I’m a minority” 'cause when you’re a minority, you think like an underling. You don’t believe you’re capable of doing something, and you begin to think only white folks or people who are superior can do things. Everyone is capable of going beyond where they are. That’s going to be one of the biggest challenges—to believe that you can do what’s not been done yet."