"Freedom Schooling"

By Kristin Grech, Fall 2006

Grace Lee Boggs is an activist, a talented writer, and a distinguished speaker. Boggs has an astounding sixty years of political involvement, and a lot of her work is driven by her political engagements. Boggs believes, “radical, social change must be viewed as a two-sided transformational process, of us and of our institutions.”

Boggs’ goal is to redefine education, and is doing so by keeping alive the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. The achievement of Freedom Schooling is to educate both children and adults in both civil and voting rights, as well as reading, writing, and speaking skills. Freedom Schooling helped to teach Black History, and not only influenced structure, but helped to build an association to resist against it.

Freedom Schooling first began in the 1960’s, and has traveled throughout southern United States. Freedom Schooling mainly traveled in Mississippi, but left one of the most influential models in Detroit. ‘Detroit Summer’ is a multi-cultural and intergenerational youth program that helped to build, redefine, and strengthen Detroit from the ground up. With the help of volunteers, they are turning empty parking lots to playgrounds and gardens, painting inspirational murals, and most importantly, discovering new ideas about economics, transportation, education, and social change.

Boggs, with her outstanding education, has the extreme knowledge of making improvements. For example, in the last two years of Martin Luther King Juniors life, he had high hopes for Freedom Schooling, and openly criticized the way instructors were trying to encourage white, middle-class values in black youth. He identified programs to involve young people in direct actions “in our dying cities.” Boggs wanted for King’s dreams to live on for our youth, and with Freedom Schooling, and Detroit Summer, she did just that.

Every city or town needs a Grace Lee Boggs. Her knowledge has helped to further education in America’s youth. In her writing, she teaches the essence of having knowledge, and that with more knowledge, comes better opportunities. Boggs helps the youth develop the confidence in their capacity to help make decisions. With having the youth on site to help rebuild Detroit, they are also developing self-assurance in the ability to have leadership, and beyond that, they are able to get out, get exercise, and start to build friendships.

In one outside interview, Nicole Vowell stated, “I believe Grace Lee Boggs is our chance to make a difference in education. Her ability to write and speak can make a change in how people feel about the education of Michigan’s youth.”
Vowell, 20, is a full-time student at Schoolcraft Community College. She is currently majoring in politics and philosophy.

“I have a younger brother, and all I want is for him to go to school and learn and take what he learns and apply it to life and be successful,” Vowell continued. “It’s tragic that so many kids do not have the chance to learn all the wonderful and neat things I have learned.”

Twenty-year-old Tiffany Gauci, a full-time student at Schoolcraft College majoring in Business and Human Resources, agrees with Vowell.

“Education is very important, and I believe that kids need someone influential to look up to,” said Gauci. “I think Grace Lee Boggs could be that person. Not many people have the powerful knowledge to help children, and that quality is very important.”

In an article written in the Michigan Citizen July 17 through the 23rd of 2005 entitled “Give Detroit Schools a Fresh Start,” Boggs stated. “Inner city schools are organized on the factory model. Students take in and regurgitate information. They are given assignments and worksheets and are expected to take order after graduation. But since globalization, inner city students need preparation for critical thinking, leadership and thinking about the future. Young people are as smart as suburban students. They drop out because at a gut level they recognize the class differences between factory-orientated “training” and the empowering education of the middle and upper class youth. If we gave students a more challenging and exciting curriculum, there would be fewer dropouts -- 40,000 less since the state takeover five years ago.”

Boggs has done the research and has gained the knowledge to help inner city students excel in school. She has proved that Freedom Schooling really can change the curriculums in Detroit Public Schools, and that with the right direction, students can feel empowered to get good grades.

Along with her late husband, African-American writer and activist Jimmy Boggs, she became centrally located in numerous organizations, including Johnston-Forest Tendency, Correspondence, the National Organization for an American Revolution, and the Freedom Now Party and Detroit Summer. Along with her national accreditation in those groups, Boggs has also worked with Malcolm X, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, CLR James, Raya Dunayevskaya, Kwame Nkrumah, and Stoley Carmichael.

Boggs received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, she moved to Chicago to join the movement as a tenant’s rights activist. Boggs then moved to Detroit where she became a leading member of socialist, black and Asian liberation struggles. In 1973, she co-authored, “Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century,” with late husband Jimmy Boggs. In 1998, she published her autobiography, “Living for Change,” and now in her 90’s, she is active in The Boggs Center, a non-profit community organization based in Detroit’s eastside.