{"id":381,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:57:16","latitude":41.8127970000000033223841455765068531036376953125,"longitude":-71.4203940000000017107595340348780155181884765625,"title":"1915-2015: Grace Lee Boggs","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/7eb115a4d7b8ca3f7707bcba9f65d935.jpg","address":"27 Somerset St., Providence, RI 02907","all_locations":[],"zoom":18,"creator":["Taylor M. Polites"],"description":"Grace Lee Boggs was an activist for equality and labor justice, working with her husband James Boggs in Detroit, and reached a global community with their campaign for workers&#039; rights and understanding across racial and ethnic boundaries.<br />\r\n <br />\r\nBoggs was born over her father&#039;s Westminster Street Chinese restaurant, Chin Lee, in 1915. Her father had immigrated from China, first to the West Coast and finally to Providence, where he became a successful restaurant entrepreneur, connected to the Chinese commercial community in Rhode Island and in his home country. The family lived on Somerset Street in South Providence for a number of years before moving to New York City, where another Chin Lee Restaurant was opened. Despite the family&#039;s financial success, young Grace felt the sting of racism and sexism growing up. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nGrace attended Barnard College and received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Bryn Mawr. She lived and worked as a labor and civil rights activist in Chicago, New York, and finally Detroit, where she met and married auto worker and labor leader James Boggs. Her life was spent advocating for workers rights, critiquing the capitalist economic system, and working for interracial and cultural understanding. Grace died in 2015 in Detroit.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"<div style=\"text-align:center;\"><em>An Icon of American Civil Rights Activism Was Born in Providence, the Daughter of Chinese Immigrants</em></div>","website":"","related_resources":[],"factoids":["<em>Tip:</em><br />\n<ul>\n<li>John Eng-Wong of Brown University has spent years gathering information about Providence's Chinese immigrant community. For more information on his work and the stories he has restored to the city, visit the website Providence's Chinatown here: <a href=\"https://richinesehistory.com/index.html\">https://richinesehistory.com/index.html</a>.</li>\n</ul>","<em>Tip:</em><br />\n<ul>\n<li>To find out more about the life and work of James and Grace Lee Boggs, visit The Boggs Center website here: <a href=\"http://boggscenter.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http://boggscenter.org.</a></li>\n</ul>"],"files":{"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/7eb115a4d7b8ca3f7707bcba9f65d935.jpg":{"id":1543,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Grace Lee Boggs","description":"This is an image of Grace Lee Boggs in 2012, when she was 97 years old. Boggs was born in Providence in 1915. | 2012","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/7eb115a4d7b8ca3f7707bcba9f65d935.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/70b6398b71ab145d24c059274d9e5c18.jpg":{"id":1544,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"A Chinese Commission Visits Providence","description":"This image of a delegation of Chinese businessmen was taken in 1915, the same year Grace Lee Boggs was born. Her father Chin Lee was a restaurant owner in Providence and hosted the delegation at his restaurant after they toured Providence industries. | 1915","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/70b6398b71ab145d24c059274d9e5c18.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/e3cbdd497c47035a05e209c55dff8e69.jpg":{"id":1545,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Plat Map of Providence","description":"This 1918 plat map of the area around Broad Street shows the location of the Chin Lee house on Somerset Street. Marked with a red arrow, the house is just down from Trinity Church Square, the intersection of Broad Street and Elmwood Avenue. | 1918","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/e3cbdd497c47035a05e209c55dff8e69.jpg"}}}