Well-known and beloved social activist, Grace Lee Boggs, passed away in her Detroit house on October 5, 2015. At the age of 100, she left behind a lasting legacy - one that would take roughly seven decades to build. Boggs was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Chinese immigrants in 1915, but came of age in New York, where she attended Barnard College at the age of 16. A true scholar at heart, she later went on to earn her doctorate in philosophy at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania – the first of many other titles she would soon come to hold. Aside from a social activist, Boggs was also a philosopher, a feminist, an American author and above all else, a revolutionary in our eyes. Her inclination towards socialism was deeply rooted. Raised in a lower-middle-class household during the era of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, Boggs personally witnessed …show more content…
She would later go on to participate in a variety of social causes, from the Black Power movement to her involvement in far-left Workers Party, the Socialist Workers Party and eventually, the Johnson-Forest Tendency (Johnsonites) sect, where she collaborated with Marxist theorists, C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya. Because Detroit was also the core of Johnsonite organizing, Boggs moved there in 1953, and in that same year, she married James Boggs, a social activist and fellow-Johnsonite. Together, they would head off into their own trajectory until her husband’s death in 1993, giving way to the establishment of Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, which utilizes Boggs’ home as its headquarters. In later years, Boggs began to principally focus on the city of Detroit, where she championed various community-based projects like Detroit Summer, a multicultural and intergenerational youth program. Today, the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership also continues to serve as a hub for social
Glenda’s family and her stopped moving when both Glenda and Scott decided to retire from the Air Force in 2008 making their permanent home in Newport News Virginia. Just before retiring, she decided to get her degree in teaching. After receiving her degree, she retired and became a third grade teacher at Greenwood Elementary School, Newport News, VA. Glenda Price-Carter is my mother and to me the strongest women for her sacrifice of so many years to her country. I believe that if Glenda allowed racism of the 70s and 80s around her stop her, she wouldn’t be the women she is
In Lizabeth Cohen’s book, Making a New Deal, it shows a timeline of the shift that took place in the American people during the Great Depression. Before the Great Depression in 1919 there was a wave of strikes that failed after the Great War. The disappointment from the little gains for the American working class caused the labors to abandon some of their values and look for better ways to organize the Unions. When the Great Depression hit America labors had to come up with new ideas and behaviors to create a stronger Unions. Stronger Unions made it possible for them to have power in national politics and still succeed in their work life.
Grace Hartman was a Canadian female social activist and politician who resided in Sudbury Ontario. In 1966 she was elected the first female mayor. Named one of the 25 top leading women in 1975, Hartman held positions at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Ontario Municipal Association. As an avid Canadian union activist, her win in the election made her the first female in North America to lead a major union. Additionally, Madeleine Parent was a prominent and successful Canadian labour activist.
When you think of September you think of back to school. Right? We all remember the smell of a new box of crayons. Well in the 1900s that was not the case for many children in America. Labor laws were not fair, but there was one American woman in that era that said enough is enough.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s was triggered by big businessmen and their corporations. This resulted in growing anger and anxiety towards the dynastic rich. President Theodore Roosevelt attacked the wealthy by imposing regulations on companies and attempting to reform the rich. Another attack was Easy Living, a 1937 film, where comedy was used to make fun of the dynastic rich and big business. While both were obvious jabs at the rich, Theodore Roosevelt’s attacks were more blatant and direct whereas Easy Living is a lighthearted comedy that made the viewer feel sympathetic towards the Ball family.
Facing this severe amount of loss is not an easy task for the public to face, and many could not bear it all together. Going from having a very decent life to basically fighting tooth and nail to keep your home is a tough concept to fathom for most of America today, but it was the reality. An essay by Robert J. Hastings, “Digging In”, perfectly paints the mindset of his family and most of public in regards to what they had to give up. In this dissertation, Hastings writes about how the state of the economy was and that they gave up whatever possible: “With no dependable income, we cut back on everything possible… turned off city water… sold our Model T Ford…”. Perhaps his feelings toward cutting back are a little softer in retrospect, but picturing what was then lacking in homes completes the perspective on the Great Depression itself.
She became widely recognized for her speech, “Education and the Elevation of the Colored Race”, participated in the underground railroad (helping slaves escape to Canada), and fought African American’s and women’s rights. Harper is a cofounder/ vice president of the National Association of Colored Women is known as the, “Mother of African American Journalism” and. Decades after her passing (February 22,1911),
She was an African- American civil rights leader who founded the National Council of Negro Women. She was a government official who had significant influence in Franklin D. Roosevelt’S New Deal Government. She was an educator who taught at Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia in 1898 and later at the
“I’ve been very mindful that things can change quickly, without warning...” (McCabe 14). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was greatly influenced by The Great Depression. There are many major historical connections to book, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality and the Scottsboro trials.
When thinking of a historical figure, many imagine a president, king, or general that lead a country to greatness, but never realized some could be the ones who influence the minds of society. Although not thought of as anything, writers and poets hold the key to shaping the society’s mindset without even knowing it. Being a civil rights activist, social activist, and role model for women makes Maya Angelou a historical figure who has made a huge impact in American society and in American history. Born poor and black, she was a childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence. She was a young single mother who had to work at strip clubs for a living.
Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.
The Great Depression was not only one of the defining moments in American history, but also one of the most difficult hardships Americans faced. During the Great Depression, which was ignited by the stock market crash of 1929, people faced unemployment, poverty, and changes in government the ultimately shaped America today. Many people believe that The Great Depression began when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929 (“The Great Depression,” American Express). In the mid to late 1920’s the stock market grew majorly, the stock prices skyrocketed gaining interest from all kinds of people.
The great depression made a major impact on the lives of the people that lived through it. One group of people that is often overlooked are children that lived during that time period. When the parents lost their jobs the responsibility the parent once held was put on the children of the families to contribute to the income of the home. Because of this in the great depression “two-fifths of children were employed in part time jobs” (Elder 65). In Glen Elder’s book Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience he discusses how the depression affected those children in their later lives.
Her arms are lacking the definition that a healthy child would have. She stands with a hard expression with no trace of happiness on her dirty, sunken in face. This photograph shows the toll the great depression had
Maya Angelou worked as a professor at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1991 to 2014. As an African American women, one whose life was full of racial discrimination and gender inequality, she had plenty of experience and wisdom to share with her students. During her time working at the university, she taught a variety of humanities courses such as “World Poetry in Dramatic Performance,” “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.,” and “Race in the Southern Experience” (Wake Forest University,