Grimké, Angelina Weld (1880–1958)

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Grimké, Angelina Weld (1880–1958)

African-American poet and writer. Name variations: Angela Weld Grimke. Born on February 20, 1880, in Boston, Massachusetts; died on June 10, 1958, in New York, New York; daughter of Archibald Henry Grimké (nephew of Sarah Moore Grimké and Angelina E. Grimké) and Sarah (Stanley) Grimké; never married; no children.

Selected writings:

Rachel (1920); Mara (unpublished); "The Grave in the Corner"; "To Theodore Weld on His Ninetieth Birthday"; "Street Echoes"; "Longing"; "El Beso"; "To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimké"; "To Dunbar High School."

Angelina Weld Grimké, a child of a biracial marriage between Archibald Henry Grimké and Sarah Stanley Grimké , grew up in prominent Bostonian society. Her maternal grandparents opposed the biracial marriage of their daughter, even though Archibald Grimké had a long and distinguished pedigree. His father Henry Grimké was a white plantation owner who entered into a relationship with one of his slaves, Nancy Weston , after the death of his wife. When Grimké died he asked one of his white sons to provide Weston and his children by her with their full heritage as his children. The son did not honor his father's wishes and the biracial sons were sold into slavery. Angelina's father escaped to the North; one of Henry's sisters, Angelina E. Grimké , discovered Archibald and his brother at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and openly acknowledged them as her nephews.

Archibald continued his studies at Harvard Law School and earned his LL.B. in 1874, setting up practice in Boston. In 1879, he married Sarah E. Stanley, and in 1880, when their daughter was born, they named her Angelina in honor of his aunt.

The marriage between Archibald and Sarah did not last, and in 1883 she returned to her parents, taking Angelina with her. After seven years, Angelina returned to her father and had no further contact with her mother. Although abandoned by her mother, Grimké had a sheltered childhood. Being in the upper class, she did not

experience the same prejudices that most African-Americans experienced. Her first drama, Rachel (1920), however, reflects her growing awareness of, and anger at, the racial problems of the times.

Grimké received an excellent education at upper-class schools, including Carlton Academy in Northfield, Minnesota, and Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. In 1902, she graduated from Boston Normal School of Gymnastics and took a teaching position in Washington D.C. Between 1906 and 1910, she spent her summers as a student at Harvard. It was during her time in Washington that she wrote her better-known pieces. She retired from teaching in 1926 due to ill health from a back injury sustained in a railway accident in July of 1911.

Grimké's work reflects the deep frustrations and unhappiness that were always present within her. Her poetic form is focused and orderly, while the internal meanings are seen as distorted, reflecting back on her sad life. In many poems, she accepts death as the only solution to agonizing problems. This point is brought home in her most radical work, a short story entitled "The Closing Door," where she expresses her belief that black women should not bring children into such a painful world.

Part of her mental anguish may be attributed to the inner turmoil she experienced regarding her love for women. In a letter to Mamie Burrill in 1896, she refers to such a loving relationship and asks Mamie to be her "wife," signing the letter "Your passionate lover." It is not known if she had other relationships similar to this one, but the tone of her poetry indicates that she may have suppressed her desires, since many of her poems concern unconsummated, unrequited love.

Grimké counted among her friends many important writers of the Harlem Renaissance, but her relationship with her father had the strongest impact on her. Her devotion to him was such that one person termed their relation-ship as "almost incestuous." His illness from 1928 until 1930, and his subsequent death, were a turning point in her life. She moved to New York to work on her writing, but produced nothing. Her last years were spent as a recluse in her New York apartment.

Most critics agree that Grimké's finest works were her two plays, Rachel and Mara. Rachel was staged at the Myrtilla Miner Normal School in Washington D.C. in 1916, the Neighborhood Theater in New York City in 1917, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1917. It was finally published in 1920 and received mixed reviews. The play analyzes the effects of prejudice on a respectable black family and while it effectively presents the problems of racism, it offers no solutions. Most critics agree that her second play, Mara—also with racial themes—is the better of the two. There is no record that Grimké ever published the play. The final version is a handwritten copy of 190 pages.

Angelina Weld Grimké lived at a time when the literary world was beginning to pay attention to black writers, but attention and publishing opportunities were given more to male than female authors. She did, however, receive many offers to write articles and for speaking engagements, but there is little indication that she took advantage of these opportunities, perhaps due to her retiring personality and preference for solitude.

In addition to her dramas, Grimké wrote short stories and articles, but her many poems represent her best creative efforts. Only a few of her works were published during her lifetime. Her poetry appeared in the Norfolk Country Gazette, The Boston Globe, the Boston Transcript, and Opportunity. Among her published works are "The Grave in the Corner" (1893), "To Theodore Weld on His Ninetieth Birthday" (1893), "Street Echoes" (1894), "Longing" (1901), "El Beso" (1909), "To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimké" (1915), and "To Dunbar High School" (1923). Her works also appear in various anthologies, including Alain Locke's The New Negro (1925), Otelia Cromwell's Readings from Negro Authors (1931), and Robert T. Kerlin's Negro Poets and Their Poems (1935).