Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and in different races too! 

One example of an Asian American hero is Grace Lee Boggs.

Grace Lee Boggs was born on June 27, 1915 in Providence, Rhode Island to Chinese immigrants. Immigrants are people who have moved from one place to another to stay forever!

At this time, there was a lot of people who hated Chinese immigrants, and did very mean and bad things to them! 

Even the government didn't treat Chinese people well.

For example, in 1882, the American government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned all Chinese immigrants who were laborers. 

This was only 23 years before Grace was born!

There was also mistreatment of other Asian American groups, like the Japanese or Filipinx communities during this time too. 

This mistreatment also affected Grace Lee Boggs. Even though she studied very hard in college and even got a PHD in Philosophy, she couldn't get any jobs because she was Asian. 

Grace had to get a job working in a library, since she couldn't be hired anywhere else.

She wasn't given much money for her job, and even had to sleep in a basement full of rats!

But, due to her experiences, she related to other people, specifically Black Americans who also lived in rat-infested areas due to their treatment in America.