PBS: Doc Offers Lessons From Revolutionary Grace Lee Boggs

Not the face one might expect for Black Power in Detroit in the volatile 1960s, but 99-year-old Grace Lee Boggs is well-known among civil rights supporters—and the FBI–for fighting for civil rights, against war, for labor and women’s rights, and just about anything she deemed a social injustice.

And the Chinese American writer, philosopher and activist is still at it, according to the award-winning documentary “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” airing Monday, June 30, on PBS as part of its POV documentary series. The film will also stream on PBS’ website July 1-30:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/americanrevolutionary/

No doubt that Boggs has seen a lot in her near-century on Earth, but she’s not sitting around pondering the old days, she still has ideas for the next revolution. As a female and Chinese, Boggs felt like an outsider much of her life in mainstream society, despite earning a doctorate degree. The discrimination she witnessed spurred her on throughout her life.

Winner of the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award in 2013 and directed by Grace Lee, “American Revolutionary” takes a look at Grace Lee Boggs’ many decades as an activist in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements.