At 91, Grace Lee Boggs looks like she could be anyone's
grandmother. However, in reality, she is a living
testament to just about every social rights movement that
has occurred in the United States during the last 65 years.
Beginning with her plans to march with A. Philip Randolph
on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to protest racial discrimination
in the armed forces to her grave concerns about the war
in Iraq today, Boggs has been an activist, writer and speaker
involved in the following historical movements: labor,
civil rights, Black Power, Asian American, women's rights
and environmental justice.
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REMEMBERING KING: Longtime social activist
Grace Lee Boggs discusses the relevance of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. in today's world during
the President's MLK Luncheon, which took
place in the EMU Student Center Grand
Ballroom Jan. 15. Boggs, of Detroit, provided
brief remarks at the luncheon before giving
her keynote address in Pease Auditorium. |
Boggs, who served as the keynote speaker at Eastern Michigan
University's Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration Jan.
15, said this year marks the 40th anniversary of King's "Time
to Break the Silence" speech. The speech challenged Americans
to a radical transformation of values. At that time, King
saw the Vietnam War as "a symptom of a far deeper malady
of the American spirit" and called for Americans to fight
poverty, racism and militarism.
"What King meant was that there was a loss of interaction
and participation. It's not just what's happening in Iraq,
but happening in our own neighborhoods today," said Boggs,
a resident of Detroit since 1953.
Today, Boggs sees the same challenges facing America,
saying the word "communism" that was at the center of conflict
in Vietnam has only been replaced by "terrorism" in the
present.
"Technological development has outrun our spiritual development.
A nation that continues to spend more each year on war
rather than social services and education is a society
approaching death," Boggs said, making references to the
current Bush administration. "Instead of pursuing an oil
economy, we could have resolved to live more simply. The
terrorism of today would not have fertile soil."
During the President's Luncheon in the EMU Student
Center Grand Ballroom, Boggs provided abbreviated remarks
entitled, ""This is the Time to Grow Our Soul." Boggs
provided five areas where individuals and communities can
address challenges America faces today and which King spoke
about in his time.
- "Peace, like violence, begins at home. We can begin
the process of creating peace at home and abroad by life-affirming
actions on a local level. Local acts that connect us
to one another restore community and will heal our pain
and anguish, move us from fear to hope and from destruction
to restoration. Each small act contributes to larger
possibilities for justice."
- "Love is the key that unlocks the door to an alternate
reality...Let us struggle to make this radical kind
of love the essence of public policies and our personal
relationships."
- "Ending poverty is possible. King called upon us to "lift
the load of poverty" in the United States and across
the world, yet there are millions of people without homes,
health care or meaningful jobs. Together, we can unite
low-wage workers, public housing residents, farm workers,
homeless families, hungry children and people without
health care into a movement to empower the poor and put
an end to poverty and want. Let us carry on this living
legacy — educating ourselves and others about poverty
in our communities and building relationships among us
all."
- "Create self-transforming and structure-transforming
activities to save the youth 'of our dying cities.' More
than 50 percent of our young people in most cities are
dropping out before graduating from high school. For
all too many, life becomes short and cheap, ending in
prison, despair or death. We must find ways to re-engage
the energies and imagination of our youth in the reconstruction
of life in our neighborhoods and communities."
- "Spread the message of King throughout the year. Hold
public readings and a discussion of the "Time to Break
the Silence" April 4. Focus these discussions on the
question of how to create programs and projects to make
the summer of 2007 a 'summer of hope' in your community.
Find ways to engage young people across the barriers
of age, ethnicity, cultures and regions to do the work
of rebuilding our public life, culture and common ground."
Boggs has worked with and provided counsel to hundreds
of writers and activists, including Malcolm X, Ossie Davis,
Ruby Dee, Raya Dunayevskaya, Kwame Nkrumah and Stokely
Carmichael.
Born in Providence, R.I., to Chinese immigrant parents
in l915, Boggs received her bachelor's degree from Barnard
College in l935 and her doctorate in philosophy from Bryn
Mawr College in l940.
In the l940s and l950s, she worked with West Indian Marxist
historian C.L.R. James and, in l953, she came to Detroit
where she married James Boggs, an African-American labor
activist, writer and strategist. Working together in grassroots
groups and projects, they were partners for more than 40
years until James' death in July l993. Their book, "Revolution
and Evolution in the Twentieth Century," was published
by Monthly
Review Press in l974.
In 1992, with her husband and others, Boggs founded
Detroit Summer, a multicultural, intergenerational youth
program to rebuild, redefine and re-spirit Detroit from
the ground up. Currently, she is active in Detroit Summer,
with the Freedom Schoolers, and writes for the weekly Michigan
Citizen.
Her autobiography, "Living for Change," is widely used
in university classes on social movements and autobiography
writing.
After her keynote address, Michael Abner, a 57-year-old
resident of Ann Arbor, thanked Boggs for her late husband's
efforts to help him successfully lobby his local draft
board as a "conscientious objector" against the Vietnam
War. Had he not been prepared for the questions he was
asked by the draft board when he was 17, Abner said he
"would have gone to Vietnam and died."
"It makes me understand her presence in my old neighborhood
a little bit more," Abner said. "When I was 17, I didn't
understand what activism was. Now, I can put her past and
her future together. I can see the connection."
Spirit of King
During the President's MLK Luncheon, a number of awards
were handed out — to young and old — who exemplify the
values of Dr. King.
John Porter, former president of EMU,
and Ron
Woods, interim
department head of African-American Studies, were awarded
the MLK Jr. Honor Awards. Both received standing ovations
from the large crowd.
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THE KING'S DISCIPLE: Ron
Woods, interim
head of EMU's
Department of African-
American Studies,
makes brief
comments after being awarded
the MLK
Jr. Honor Award. John
Porter, former president
of EMU,
also received the award during
the President' MLK
Luncheon. |
"This is a real testimony to Dr. King living the dream," said
Porter, who organized EMU's first President's MLK Luncheon
in 1987. "I want to thank all of you for being part of
this day of celebration."
"It's very humbling to receive this honor," said Woods
who, since 2002, has organized the MLK March in Ann Arbor
as part of the Second Baptist Church of Ann Arbor's celebration
of King.
Woods cited the major influences in his life, including
his mother, who was the first African-American president
of the Meadow Walk School PTA in Cincinnati, Ohio.
La'Porscha Pittman and Dara
Walker, both EMU
students, were the recipients of the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Humanitarian Awards. The award recognizes individuals
from within the University and the local community who
exemplify the values and ideals of Dr. King.
Bayyinah K. Muhammad was presented the Evans-Strand Award,
a $1,000 prize that recognizes an individual for significant
contributions in advancing the cause of diversity at EMU.
Lauren Burdick won the Nora and Lee Martin
Award, given to a senior at Ypsilanti High School for community
service efforts.
Lisa Lavern Williams, a senior at Lincoln
High School, garnered the Margaret Crawford Trailblazer
Award. The award is given to a student at that school who
has demonstrated excellence in academics and service.
Genevieve Jones, an 11th-grader at Ypsilanti High School,
was the winner of the Ypsilanti Public Schools MLK Essay
and Creative Arts Contest, which included 10 finalists
from area elementary, middle and high schools. She was
awarded a $200 savings bond for her essay, "Blueprint for
a Masterpiece."
The University's MLK Day celebration concluded with a
march and candlelight vigil, which started at Pease Auditorium
and finished at the EMU Student Center. Related events
began Jan. 11 and a few more are scheduled today and Wednesday,
Jan. 17.
MLK-related events continue this week
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KATRINA REMEMBERED: Spike Lee's film,
"When the Levees Broke," will be shown
in the Halle
Library Auditorium Jan. 16. |
Director Spike Lee's film, "When the Levees Broke," a
requiem in four acts, will be shown in the Halle Library
Auditorium Jan. 16 and will feature a discussion with Bankole
Thompson, editor of the Michigan Chronicle. The schedule
is as follows: acts I and II, 4-6 p.m.; discussion,
6-6:30 p.m.; acts III and IV, 6:30-8:30 p.m.; and discussion,
8:30 p.m.
"Unveiling the Truth: A Forum on Faith and Religion," is
scheduled Wednesday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m., Room 352, EMU Student
Center. In the spirit of Dr. King, this forum will bring
together various people of differing faiths for dialogue
and discussion. Bayyinah Muhammad moderates.
In all, EMU hosted more than 60 events as part of its
celebration of Dr. King.
