Fulfilling the Promise of America

In honor of Women's History Month, Tiya Miles revisits the timeless message of 19th-century abolitionist Angelina Grimké: “The ground upon which you stand is holy ground; never—never surrender it."

Protestors in Washington, D.C., after a grand jury decided not to indict an NYPD officer for the choking death of Eric Garner, Dec.13, 2014. (iStock/coast-to-coast)

By Tiya Miles

Angelina Grimké did not mature into the demure Southern lady that her slaveholding parents expected.

Instead, moved by the racial violence she witnessed on her wealthy family’s So…