Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Writer, activist, and educator

• Born: July 19, 1875
• Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
• Died: September 18, 1935
• Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Best known as a poet, Dunbar-Nelson also was a journalist, activist, educator, and tireless promoter of her race and gender. She was among the first African American women to gain literary prominence preceding the Harlem Renaissance. Her reputation was ensured by inclusion of her poems in James Weldon Johnson’s The Book of American Negro Poetry(1931).

Early Life

Alice Dunbar-Nelson was born Alice Ruth Moore on July 19, 1875, in New Orleans to Patricia Wright, a freed slave who worked as a seamstress. Her father, Joseph Moore, a seaman, left the family after the birth of Dunbar-Nelson and her sister, Leila. Dunbar-Nelson’s mixed race (African American, Native American, and European American), fair complexion, and reddish hair connected her with New Orleans Creole society, which enjoyed more social privileges and opportunities than the African American population. She took advantage of her ability to “pass” for white to gain entrance to cultural events otherwise closed to African Americans. Dunbar-Nelson graduated from Straight University (now Dillard University), where she earned teaching certification.

Dunbar-Nelson’s early years reflect the creativity, diligence, and resourcefulness that characterized her life. By age twenty, she had published a collection of stories, Violets and Other Tales (1895). While in college, she pursued many creative interests, including music, theater, and writing.

Life’s Work

After earning her degree, Dunbar-Nelson taught in New Orleans schools and then followed her sister, brother-in-law, and mother to the Northeast. The family remained close throughout their lives. She loved and cared for her nieces and nephew as if they were her own children.

In 1897, Dunbar-Nelson moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she taught and then helped found the White Rose Home for Girls in Harlem. Her photo accompanied a poem published in a magazine, attracting the attention of nationally acclaimed African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. He began writing and courted her through letters. They married in 1898 and moved to Washington, D.C. The couple separated after a few years, but when Dunbar died in 1906, Dunbar-Nelson kept his name and benefited from some of the opportunities that connection to him offered. As Dunbar’s widow, she accepted invitations to speak and developed an oratory style that brought her many more such engagements.

In 1907, Dunbar-Nelson began to study English at Cornell University, writing a thesis on John Milton’s influence on William Wordsworth, which she adapted and published as the essay “Wordsworth’s Use of Milton’s Description of Pandemonium” in Modern Language Notes. Over the years, she also studied education and psychology at other universities. In 1916, she wrote another scholarly work, “People of Color in Louisiana,” for The Journal of Negro History.

Dunbar-Nelson had gained acclaim before the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural movement that ushered in a generation of writers engaged in bold experimentation. While she participated in many of the social and intellectual gatherings of these writers, she continued to write primarily in a more traditional style. Although Dunbar-Nelson’s reputation is based primarily on her poetry, published in various periodicals, she also published another collection of stories, The Goodness of St. Rogue (1899). However, she tended to express her race and gender concerns in journalism, a form of writing that was more lucrative and served her need to earn a living.

In 1902, Dunbar-Nelson began teaching at Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1920, she founded the Industrial School for Colored Girls in Marshallton, Delaware. Throughout her life, she also supported African American women’s issues through her work with the Women’s Club movement, a social network promoting equality for women. She also was politically active in racial issues, campaigning for an antilynching congressional bill in 1922.

In 1916, Dunbar-Nelson married Robert Nelson, with whom she enjoyed a supportive personal and working relationship. For two years, they published a liberal African American newspaper, The Wilmington Advocate. When he accepted a lucrative position in Washington, D.C., they left behind the economic pressures that had plagued much of her life. Dunbar-Nelson died on September 18, 1935, in Philadelphia.

Significance

A prominent African American writer and activist in the pre-Civil Rights movement era, Dunbar-Nelson produced writing with traditional themes and styles even during the Harlem Renaissance. Her poems continue to be included in anthologies of African American literature. Throughout her life, she worked as a journalist, publishing columns and articles in a variety of newspapers. Her diary captures an African American woman’s struggle for social equity and chronicles a transformative epoch in African American culture. Through her writing, speaking, political action, and educational work, Dunbar-Nelson supported the causes of her gender and race.

Bibliography

Alexander, Eleanor. Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Considers the short-lived relationship between Dunbar and his wife, while also focusing on African American society in the early twentieth century.

Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar Nelson. Edited by Gloria T. Hull. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. Dunbar-Nelson’s diary reveals her struggles, determination, and daily actions. Includes an overview of her life by editor Hull.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Edited by Gloria T. Hull. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. A collection of Dunbar-Nelson’s work with an enlightening introduction by the editor.

Gebhard, Caroline. “Inventing a ’Negro Literature’: Race, Dialect, and Gender in the Early Work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson.” In Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and Culture, 1877-1919, edited by Barbara McCaskill and Caroline Gebhard. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Informative scholarly essay placing Dunbar-Nelson’s writing in literary and social contexts.

Hull, Gloria T. Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomingdale: Indiana University Press, 1987. A fulsome summary of Dunbar-Nelson’s life and an analysis of her work.