Francis James Grimke was born in 1850, the son of a white man and an enslaved black woman. When Grimke's father died, Grimke ran away because his white half-brother claimed his "ownership rights" over him.
Grimke became an officer's valet in the Confederate Army. When the war ended, his paternal aunts funded his college studies at Lincoln University.
In 1870, he graduated at the top of his class. In 1878, he received a degree from Princeton's Theological Seminary.
Grimke began his ministry in DC at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church. He married poet and abolitionist Charlotte Forten in 1878; they had a child together that died in infancy.
Grimke was known for his ardent and vocal stand for civil rights. He denounced African-Americans who called for conservatism. In a 1898 speech he said:
"The sentiment everywhere is: This is a white man's government. And that means, not only that the whites shall rule, but that the Negro shall have nothing whatever to do with governmental affairs. If he dares to think otherwise, or aspires to cast a ballot, or to become anything more than a servant, he is regarded as an impudent and dangerous Negro; and according to the most recent declarations of that old slave holding and lawless spirit, all such Negroes are to be driven out of the South, or compelled by force, by what is known as the shot gun policy, to renounce their rights as men and as American citizens. This is certainly a very discouraging condition of things, but the saddest aspect of it all is that there are members of our race and not the ignorant, unthinking masses, who have had no advantages, and who might be excused for any seeming insensibility to their rights, but the intelligent, the educated who are found condoning such offenses, justifying or excusing such a condition of things on the ground that in view of the great disparity in the condition of the two races, anything different from that could not reasonably be expected."
Grimke was active in the Niagara movement and peripherally helped found the NAACP. Grimke died in 1937.
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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by writer Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that there is a long history of achievements of those involved in the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.
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