GRIMKÉ, ANGELINA WELD

(1880-1958)

Not to be confused with her great-aunt Angelina Grimké Weld (1805-1879) after whom she was named, the playwright was born in Boston to legally married interracial parents. Like her abolitionist namesake, Grimké used her literary talent to call attention to injustices suffered by African Americans. Her playRachelwas staged by the Nathaniel Guy Players at Myrtill Miner Normal School in Washington, D.C., in 1916, at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in 1917, and by numerous amateur groups after its publication in 1920. In response to lynch-ings of black males, the tragic heroine Rachel, who loves children and has longed for motherhood, sends away the man she loves after she solemnly vows never to bring a black child into this world.