Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert) Griggs

Born on June 19, 1872, Sutton E. Griggs was an American author, Baptist minister, educator, publisher, and social activist. He is most widely remembered for Imperium in Imperio, an early speculative and political novel that imagines a hidden Black government within the United States.

Griggs wrote at a time of intense racial violence and segregation, and his books directly engaged with those realities. Along with his fiction, he worked as a minister and educator, using both the pulpit and the printed page to argue for Black advancement, leadership, and self-determination.

He died on January 2, 1933, but his writing has continued to draw attention for its mix of political vision, social critique, and literary ambition. Today, he is often recognized as an important early voice in African American literature and in the long history of Black speculative thought.