PBS will broadcast the television premier of American Revolutionary, the Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs on June 30 as part of its POV series.
“Grace has made more contributions to the black struggle than most black people have,” Angela Davis said in the film.
Now 98, Boggs has a rich 75 year history in labor, civil rights and black power movements. She challenges all who will listen to think deeper about the issues confronting society.
American Revolutionary documents how A Chinese American woman became a fixture in the civil rights movement, and later a spokeswoman for black power. She began as a tenant rights organizer and was greatly influenced by West Indian Marxist writer and theorist C.L.R. James and Malcolm X.
The 1967 riots in Detroit greatly influenced Boggs, as did her activist husband, James Boggs, who she married in 1953 and who died in 1993.
“It’s hard when you’re young to understand how reality is constantly changing because it hasn’t changed that much during your lifetime,” says Boggs.
Check your local PBS listings on June 30 for POV’s airing of the American Revolutionary, the Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs.
