Angelina Weld Grimké (1880 – 1958) was an American playwright, poet, and educator best known as a figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Following is a selection of poems by Angelina Weld Grimké on love (and the longing for it), race, and nature.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Grimké was part of a family of Black, white, and mixed-race civil rights activists, and in earlier generations, abolitionists. Her father served some time as the Vice-President of the NAACP.

Her great-aunts (including the similarly named Angelina Grimké Weld) were well-known abolitionists and advocates for women’s rights in the 19th century. They were significant influences for Grimké’s use of literature as a propagandist tool. Read More→