Angelina Weld Grimké, Black Playwright and Forerunner of Harlem Renaissance

On February 27, 1880, Angelina Weld Grimké was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a biracial abolitionist family. Her mother was white and her father was the Black son of a white aristocrat and a slave. She was named for her white great aunt, Angelina Grimké Weld, a noted abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She grew to become one of the first African American women to have a play produced & performed, and was an important figure leading up to the Harlem Renaissance.

Grimké got her start as an English teacher in Washington, D.C. It was during this time that she began to write. She created poetry, short stories and plays. Many of her poems were not published due to the subject matter: her romantic feelings towards women. Grimké’s works also focused on racism and issues related to being Black in the early 20th century.

Her most important work was likely her 1916 play Rachel, which she wrote for the NAACP to protest the KKK film, The Birth of a Nation. The play focuses on a young Black woman horrified by the state of racism in the country, vowing to never bring a child into the world. It was unprecedented – the program read “This is the first attempt to use that stage for race propaganda in order to enlighten the American people relating to the lamentable condition of ten millions of colored citizens in this free republic.”

Rachel was criticized for being sentimental and defeatist, but it was one of the first plays by a Black woman for a Black audience.

Sadly, Grimké’s writing career was not very long. She was very close to her father and after he died, she went into seclusion and never wrote again. She never married or had children. She died in 1958.

Though her career was brief, her impact was great. Grimké inspired poets of the Harlem Renaissance and served as an important LGBTQ figure when her works were rediscovered in the 80s and 90s. We must remember the impact of Angelina Weld Grimké.

Sources:

http://www.glbtqarchive.com/literature/grimke_aw_L.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Angelina-Weld-Grimke

https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/about/our-blog/angelina-weld-grimke-a-biography/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/grimke-angelina-weld-1880-1958/

https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/angelina-weld-grimke

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