African American Poetry (1870-1928): A Digital Anthology

Angelina W. Grimke: Poems and Author Profile

Angelina Weld Grimke (1880-1958) was an accomplished poet, playwright, and teacher. She was of mixed Black and white ancestry, with a father (Archibald Grimke) active in the abolitionist movement who was himself of mixed ancestry. Her mother, Sarah Stanley, was white. Angelina W. Grimke was raised partly in Boston and partly in Washington, DC. After graduating from a small college in Boston in 1902, Grimke began teaching high school English in Washington, DC. She later taught at the Dunbar High School, a school where several other important figures in the Harlem Renaissance also taught. 

Today, Grimke is probably best known for her play, Rachel, which was first performed in 1916 in Washington, DC, and published in 1920. Grimke also published a number of poems in magazines like The Crisis, in the 1910s and 20s. 

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