Living for change: an autobiography PDF
Preview Living for change: an autobiography
Living for Change This page intentionally left blank Living for Change An Autobiography Grace Lee Boggs Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London "Reassurance," from Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems, by Alice Walker, is reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace and Company. "Sam's Life," words and music by Oscar Brown Jr., originally published by E. B. Marks Music, reprinted by permission of Oscar Brown Jr. "A White Man's Heaven Is a Black Man's Hell," by Louis X, reprinted by permission of Louis Farrakhan. "Paul Robeson," by Gwendolyn Brooks, reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. "Let Us Stop This Madness," by Trinidad Sanchez Jr., copyright 1991; reprinted by permission of March Abrazo Press, Chicago, Illinois. "Calling All Brothers," by Gloria House (aka Aneb Kgositsile), originally published by Broadside Press, reprinted by permission of the author. "Lessons in Grace" by Gloria House (aka Aneb Kgositsile) reprinted by permission of the author. "SOSAD—The War Zone," by Errol A. Henderson, reprinted by permission of the author. "On the Anniversary of Grace," by Louis Tsen, reprinted by permission of the author. "For James Boggs—Writer, Activist, Worker," by Ruby Dee, reprinted by permission of the author. Copyright 1998, 2016 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Boggs, Grace Lee, author. Title: Living for change : an autobiography / Grace Lee Boggs ; foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. Description: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016023164 | ISBN 978-1-5179-0148-6 (pb) Subjects: LCSH: Boggs, Grace Lee. | Chinese American women—Michigan—Detroit—Biography. Political activists—Michigan—Detroit—Biography. | Chinese Americans—Michigan—Detroit- Biography. | Detroit (Mich.)—Biography. Classification: LCC F574.D49 C53 2016 | DDC 305.48/8951073077434-dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023164 Dedicated to Jimmy Boggs 1919-1993 W. H. (Ping) Ferry 1910-1995 Dorothy Garner 1929-1995 Kathleen Gough 1925-1990 Freddy Paine 1912-1999 Lyman Paine 1901-1978 and Detroit Summer Youth Volunteers "Shaking the World with a New Dream" Books, pamphlets, and newsletters by Grace and Jimmy Boggs and associates. Photo by Rebecca Cook Contents Foreword ix Robin D. G. Kelley Introduction xix 1. East Is East—Or Is It? 1 2. From Philosophy to Politics 21 3. C. L. R. James 45 4. Jimmy 75 5. "The City Is the Black Man's Land" 117 6, Beyond Rebellion 143 7. "Going Back" to China 191 8. New Dreams for the Twenty-First Century 209 9. On My Own 241 Notes 273 Index 291 This page intentionally left blank Foreword Robin D. G. Kelley What time is it on the clock of the world? —Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs died on October 5, 2015, just three months after cele- brating her one-hundredth birthday. I was still mourning her loss and celebrating her life when the University of Minnesota Press approached me about writing the foreword to this reprint edition of Grace's mem- oir, Living for Change: An Autobiography. Buoyed by the honor, I believed the essay would be a piece of cake. First, I had served as an anonymous reader of the manuscript back in December 1996, and an excerpt of my report appeared as an endorsement on the book's cover. Second, Grace and I had a rich, productive, occasionally contentious relationship last- ing some twenty-two years. We first met in person in April 1993, at a conference on C. L. R. James held at Brown University, though I had been reading Grace and James (Jimmy) Boggs for my entire adult life. Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century (1974) and Conversations in Maine: Exploring Our Nation's Future (1978) were essential texts for my generation of would-be radicals. But figuring out what to say about Grace Lee Boggs proved ex- ceedingly difficult so soon after losing her. I wrote—or rather, wrestled with—these words amid a sea of memorials, obituaries, pronounce- ments, and reflections celebrating Grace's life and work. Heartfelt tributes flowed in from all corners of the globe, including the White House.1 Although Grace had long enjoyed an international reputation as a radical thinker and activist, her public profile had begun to rise ix
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