Grace Lee Boggs, Legendary Activist, Dies At 100

Grace Lee Boggs, 100, an activist and philosopher known internationally for her work promoting social change, died Monday at her home here.

Her friends say Boggs died as she lived, surrounded by books, ideas and thinking about the future.

Boggs, who was born above her father’s Chinese restaurant in Providence, R.I., was involved with the civil rights, Black Power, labor, environmental justice, and feminist movements over the past seven decade, Democracy Now! reported.

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She was born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1915.

The late president of Detroit City Council, Maryann Mahaffey, told The Detroit News in 2005, “Grace Boggs’ legacy, for many, is giving a vision”. She and her husband also helped form Detroit’s SOSAD, Save Our Sons and Daughters, to combat street crime. Then, in 1994, she co-founded Detroit Summer, “a multi-racial, inter-generational collective” that serves as a training ground for activists, attracting young people from around the country each year. She inspired generations of leaders in the world of social justice activism.

Documentary subject Grace Lee Boggs speaks on stage at the “American Revolutionary” premiere during the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival at American Airlines Theater on June 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

“Don’t get stuck in old ideas”, Boggs said.

“She was always asking the question, ‘What does it mean to be human?”