“As an Asian American woman within black radical circles, Grace surely was anomalous, but this raised no significant concerns or barriers to her participation in various black organizations, struggles, and movements. While she never attempted to conceal her ethnic identity,… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share Image
“Grace deeply identified with Mead’s view that ideas evolve historically. “Unlike the average American teacher of philosophy of his day,” she wrote, Mead “urged his students to relate the ideas of the great philosophers to the periods in which they lived and the social problems which they faced.” 99 For example, in his book Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“Initially, she responded by turning inward, pondering questions about the meaning of life and her place in the world. This led her to the study of philosophy in college and graduate school, and it was there that she discovered Hegel and the dialectic method. Dialectics gave her a way to connect her inward struggles around social identity and her place… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“In “Detroit Is Dynamite,” an August 1942 Life magazine article, Louis Martin and Ted Poston reported that 98.7 percent of all dwelling units in Detroit had been occupied as of April, a figure well past the 85 percent “danger mark.” 29 Making matters worse, many of these residences were of poor quality. In 1938 over 58,000 dwellings were categorized as… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“Jimmy and Grace returned to Detroit in late August, in time to participate in the final work to relaunch Correspondence. On September 21–22 the organization held a national convention in Detroit attended by the full membership across the country, just as they had done with the initial founding of the paper. During the convention Jimmy and Lyman were elected as… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“Thirteen million Negroes in America have never known three of the “Four Freedoms” which America is supposedly spreading to the rest of the world. “Freedom from want” is a mockery to Negroes when they are last to be hired and first to be fired; when so many usually obtain only domestic work of short duration: when their wages are the… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“What are you complaining about? If they don’t want you over here, why don’t you go over on Hastings Street and get yourself something?” This led to the following exchange: DAC members: We don’t want to eat on Hastings. We want to eat here. Police officer: Well, the man said he don’t want to serve you. DAC members: Yes, but… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“Jimmy likely wrote all three editorials, and one, titled “Who Is for Law and Order?” carried his byline. He argued that the spectacle, seen in other recent conflicts and then repeated most dramatically in the Little Rock crisis, of white people defying police as well as state and federal troops raised the question, “If white people defy the Constitution, who… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“She told him the origins of the “buck dance,” when “white people would come up and say ‘N____r, dance’, and then start shooting around the feet of blacks so that they would dance like everything.” 45 Big Ma was an important presence in Jimmy’s childhood and adolescence, and he credited her with giving him a unique and powerful sense of… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“As a Chinese American growing up in a largely white world during the 1920s and 1930s, a sense of social marginalization marked her formative years. “Asian Americans were so few and far between,” she recalled, “that from an early age we were raised to make ourselves as inconspicuous as possible, in part because so many of us had relatives or… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share
“Grace Lee Boggs was both product and producer of an improbable history. “I grew up in New York as a first generation Chinese American… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share Image
“As an Asian American woman within black radical circles, Grace surely was anomalous, but this raised no significant concerns or barriers to her participation… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share Image
“Under Weiss’s direction, Grace began to delve deeply into writings and ideas that would shape the rest of her life. To begin with, Weiss… — Stephen M. Ward Copy Share Image
