ANGELINA WELD GRIMKÉ

EARLY LIFE

• Born February 27, 1880 in Boston Massachusetts
• Grimké took classes at Harvard University
• Her first writings were published in The Crisis
• Born into a biracial family
• Her father Archibald Grimké was the second black man to graduate from Harvard

OTHER

• Her father was the Vice President of the NAACP
• Her aunts were prominent abolitionists
• Grimké grew up in a heritage of racial equality
• Most of her poems were influenced by her sexuality.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE

• Her most famous play called "Rachel" protested lynching and racial violence
• Angelina was also well known before the Harlem Renaissance
• Sponsored by drama committee of the NAACP
• She confronted controversial topics

CONTINUED

• Angelina wrote most of her plays based on the horrifying stories of lynchings
• These plays include Mara, Goldie, and the famous Rachel
• Her plays were the first form of race propaganda

Some people say "Angelina was not a poet of the Harlem Renaissance but rather an inspiration to those poets as forerunner to a cultural awakening of black art and expression."

TREES BY ANGELINA WELD GRIMKÉ

• "God made them very beautiful, the trees"
• Grimké is comparing African American's to trees
• "He­ Was Christ Himself not nailed to a tree?"
• This line pulls the poem together, and represents Grimké's push for equality