Poet, educator, and abolitionist, Charlotte Forten Grimké‘s poems were published during her lifetime in The Liberator and Anglo African, and her essays appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. In the late 1860s until 1878, she worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. She was active in the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, where her husband, the Reverend Frances James Grimké, was minister. Beginning in 1887, she also opened her home for a weekly Sunday evening salon where participants could discuss literature, music, and other subjects of intellectual interest, as well as issues of civil rights. Her journals were published posthumously.
The Homes
1608 R St. NW, Washington, DC
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Marked with an historic plaque. This row house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
Charlotte Forten Grimké
1608 R St. NW, Washington DC
Located in U Street/Strivers Section neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek