Archibald Grimké facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Archibald Grimké
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| Born | August 17, 1849 |
| Died | February 25, 1930 (aged 80) Washington, D.C., US
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| Occupation | attorney, diplomat, journalist |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Stanley |
| Children | Angelina Weld Grimké |
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| Relatives | Francis James Grimké, John (siblings); Angelina Grimké Weld, Sarah Moore Grimké, Thomas Smith Grimké (half-cousins) |
Archibald Henry Grimké (born August 17, 1849 – died February 25, 1930) was an important American lawyer, writer, journalist, and leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He worked hard to fight for equal rights for Black people. Archibald went to schools for formerly enslaved people, then to Lincoln University and Harvard Law School. He even served as an American diplomat in the Dominican Republic from 1894 to 1898. He was a national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and also led its Washington, D.C. branch.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Archibald Grimké was born into slavery in 1849 on a farm near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the oldest of three sons born to Henry W. Grimké, a white plantation owner, and Nancy Weston, an enslaved woman. Henry recognized his sons, but he could not legally free them because of a South Carolina law. He wanted them to be treated like family members. Archibald's brothers were Francis and John.
When Henry died in 1852, he left Nancy and their two sons, Archibald and Francis, to his legal son, Montague Grimké. Montague did not treat them well. Nancy worked as a laundress to support her family. In 1860, Montague made the boys house servants. Later, he hired them out to other people because they were disobedient. Francis was even sold by Montague. Archibald ran away and hid for two years until the American Civil War ended.
After the Civil War, the three Grimké brothers went to schools for formerly enslaved people, called freedmen's schools. Their teachers quickly saw how smart they were. With help from Gilbert Pillsbury, a school founder, Archibald and Francis were able to go North for more education. They studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, which was founded to educate Black students. Both Archibald and Francis graduated from Lincoln in 1870. Archibald even taught English grammar there for a short time.
Fighting for Equal Rights
Archibald Grimké lived and worked in the Hyde Park area of Boston for most of his career. In the 1880s, he became very active in politics. He spoke out against the rise of white supremacy, which was a system where white people believed they were superior and tried to control Black people after the Civil War.
From 1883 to 1885, Archibald was the editor of Hub, a newspaper that aimed to reach Black readers. He used the paper and public speeches to support equal rights for Black people. He became more involved in politics and was chosen for the Republican Party's state meeting in 1884. He also joined the board of a state hospital. Archibald supported the women's rights movement, just like his famous aunts, the Grimké sisters. He was even elected president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. He left the Republican Party in 1886 because he felt they weren't doing enough for Black rights. In 1889, he started writing for the Boston Herald newspaper.
Life for Black people in the South was getting harder. Archibald continued his fight against racism, sometimes working with other important leaders of his time. He joined Frederick Douglass's National Council of Colored People, which was an early group that dealt with issues like education for Black people. Archibald disagreed with Booker T. Washington about education. Washington believed in teaching farming and trade skills, but Archibald felt that academic and higher education, like what he received, was also very important.
In 1901, Archibald and several other men started The Guardian, a newspaper where they could share their ideas. They chose William Monroe Trotter as the editor. Grimké and Trotter also created the Boston Literary and Historical Association, a group of men who disagreed with Booker T. Washington's views. For a while, Archibald worked with W. E. B. Du Bois, another major leader, but he always kept his own independent ideas.
Even though he had disagreed with Washington before, in 1905, Grimké started writing for The New York Age, a leading Black newspaper that was connected to Washington. Archibald wrote about national issues from his own perspective. For example, he urged more action and criticized President Theodore Roosevelt for not fully supporting Black soldiers who were accused of causing trouble in Brownsville, Texas.
Archibald continued his intellectual work. He was president of the American Negro Academy from 1903 to 1919. This group supported Black scholars and promoted higher education for Black people. He wrote several papers for them, discussing important issues of the day. He believed that the American economic system could help formerly enslaved people become independent and truly free if they moved away from farming.
In 1907, he became involved with the Niagara Movement and later with the NAACP, both founded by Du Bois. Leaders like Grimké kept working to find the best ways to fight racism and gain equal rights, especially at a time when violence against Black men was still happening in the South.
After his daughter finished college, Archibald became even more active as a leader in the NAACP, which was founded in 1909. He worked in Boston, writing letters to protest proposed laws that would ban marriages between different races. In 1913, he was asked to become the president of the NAACP's Washington, D.C. branch. He moved there with his daughter Angelina. As president, Grimké wrote detailed reports about unfair treatment of Black people in his community, such as unequal funding for schools. He also protested against the separation of federal offices by race under President Woodrow Wilson. Grimké spoke to Congress about this in 1914, but he was not successful in changing it. Around this time, he also became a national vice-president of the NAACP. The organization supported the U.S. in World War I, but Grimké pointed out the unfair treatment of Black soldiers and worked to change it.
Archibald Grimké became ill in 1928. He and his daughter Angelina were living with his brother Francis. His daughter and brother cared for him until he passed away in 1930.
Honors and Awards
- In 1919, the NAACP gave him the Spingarn Medal for his lifetime of work for racial equality.
- In 1934, a school was renamed Grimke Elementary School in his honor. The building now houses the African American Civil War Memorial Museum.
Family Connections
The Grimké Sisters
Archibald's father, Henry, had two half-sisters named Sarah and Angelina. They had left Charleston years before Archibald was born because they did not want to live in a society that allowed slavery. They became famous abolitionists, meaning they fought to end slavery, and also supported women's rights. They were known as the Grimké sisters. They wrote and spoke in the North, joining groups like the Quakers and the American Anti-Slavery Society.
In 1868, Angelina Grimké Weld read an article about a talented student named Grimké at Lincoln University who had just come "out of slavery." She investigated and discovered that Archibald and his brothers were her brother Henry's children! Sarah and Angelina accepted the boys and their mother, Nancy Weston, as family. They helped pay for their nephews' education. Archibald went to Harvard University for law, and Francis went to Howard University for law before changing to Princeton Theological Seminary to become a minister. The Grimké sisters introduced the young men to their friends who were also fighting to end slavery.
His Brothers
Francis J. Grimké became a Presbyterian minister. He married Charlotte Forten Grimké, who came from a well-known Black family in Philadelphia that also fought against slavery. She was a teacher and famous for her diaries. Francis led the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., for over 40 years. He died in 1939.
The youngest brother, John Grimké, did not stay in school. He moved South and did not keep in touch with his family much. He died in 1915.
His Marriage and Daughter
After starting his law practice in Boston, Massachusetts, Archibald Grimké met and married Sarah Stanley, a white woman. In 1880, they had a daughter named Angelina Weld Grimké, who was named after Archibald's aunt. When Angelina was three, her parents separated, and Sarah took Angelina to the Midwest. When Angelina was seven, Sarah started working and brought Angelina back to live with Archibald in Boston. Archibald and Sarah never got back together, and Sarah passed away in 1898.
In 1894, Archibald was appointed as a diplomat to the Dominican Republic. While he was there, his daughter Angelina lived with his brother Francis and his wife Charlotte in Washington, D.C.
After finishing school, Angelina became a teacher and writer. Her essays and poems were published by The Crisis, a magazine of the NAACP. In 1916, she wrote a play called Rachel, which was about the violence against Black people. This play is considered one of the first important works by an African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance.
See also
