“G” is for Grimké, Archibald Henry (1849-1930)

“G” is for Grimké, Archibald Henry (1849-1930). Activist, scholar. Grimké was born in 1849, the son of Henry Grimké, a planter and an enslaved woman Nancy Weston. He was also the nephew of Henry's abolitionist sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimké. After the Civil War, Archibald attended Lincoln University. His aunt Angelina acknowledged kinship and became his patron. Grimké graduated from Harvard Law School and established himself in Boston. In 1883 he was the editor of a Republican Party newspaper, but soon broke with the Republicans and became a highly visible activist in Boston's Democratic Party. From 1903 to 1919 he served as president of the American Negro Academy, the leading intellectual organization for African Americans. After 1913, Archibald Henry Grimké devoted himself to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, serving on its national board.