She Who Dared | Brave Women Through History | Angelina Weld Grimké

Angelina Weld Grimké (1880–1958) was a pioneering African-American poet, playwright, and activist. Her mother was a Midwestern, middle-class white woman. Grimké was born into a prominent biracial family of abolitionists and civil rights activists. Her great-aunts, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, were renowned abolitionists. Angelina Weld Grimké’s father, Archibald Grimké, was born into slavery in South Carolina. Archibald was the son of his enslaver, Henry Grimké, and an enslaved woman named Nancy Weston. Despite the challenges of his early life, Archibald became one of the first African Americans to graduate from Harvard Law School. 

Grimké’s play Rachel (1916), a three-act play, was one of the first plays written by a Black author about Black issues and written to countermand The Birth of a Nation. The following excerpt is from Act I. 

———-

Mrs. Loving (Bracing herself): They—they—were lynched!!

Tom and Rachel (In a whisper): Lynched!

Mrs. Loving (Slowly, laboring under strong but restrained emotion): Yes—by Christian people—in a Christian land. We found out afterward they were all church members in good standing—the best people….

Mrs. Loving (Too absorbed to hear): We were not asleep—your father and I. They broke down the front door and made their way to our bedroom. Your father kissed me—and took up his revolver. It was always loaded. They broke down the door…. I tried to shut my eyes—I could not. Four masked men fell—they did not move any more—after a little. (Pauses). Your father was finally overpowered and dragged out. In the hall—my little seventeen-year-old George tried to rescue him. Your father begged him not to interfere. He paid no attention. It ended in their dragging them both out. (Pauses). My little George—was—a man! (Controls herself with an effort). He never made an outcry. His last words to me were: “Ma, I am glad to go with Father.” I could only nod to him. (Pauses). While they were dragging them down the steps, I crept into the room where you were…. It was very still when I finally uncovered my ears. The only sounds were the faint rustle of leaves and the “tap-tapping of the twig of a tree” against the window. I hear it still—sometimes in my dreams. It was the tree—where they were.