Alice Dunbar Nelson
Encyclopedia
Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 - September 18, 1935) was an American
poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South
after the Civil War
, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance
. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
; she then married physician Henry A. Callis
; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist.
community of the city. At a time when fewer than 1% of Americans went to college, Moore graduated from Straight University
(now Dillard University
) in 1892 and started work as a teacher in the public school system of New Orleans.
In 1895 her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review. About that time, Moore moved to New York
. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn
. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and publisher Paul Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898.
She and Paul Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. Paul Dunbar died in 1906.
Alice Dunbar then moved to Wilmington, Delaware
and taught at Howard High School
for more than a decade. In 1910 she married Henry A. Callis
, a prominent physician and professor at Howard University
, but this marriage ended in divorce.
From 1913 to 1914, Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church
(AME Church). In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. They stayed together for the rest of their lives. From 1920, she coedited the Wilmington Advocate, a progressive black newspaper. She also published The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, a literary anthology for a black audience.
Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915 she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage
movement. In 1918 she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924 Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years. Her journalism career originally began with a rocky start. During the late nineteenth century, it was still unusual for women to work outside of the home, let alone an African American woman, and the journalism business was a hostile, male-dominated field. In her diary, she spoke about the tribulations associated with the professional of journalism – "Damn bad luck I have with my pen. Some fate has decreed I shall never make money by it" (Diary 366). She discusses being denied pay for her articles and issues she had with receiving proper recognition for her work.
She moved from Delaware to Philadelphia in 1932, when her husband joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission. During this time her health was in decline and she died from a heart ailment on September 18, 1935, at the age of sixty. She is interred at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware
.
She was made an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta
sorority. Her papers were collected by the University of Delaware
.
Her diary was published in 1984 and detailed her life during the years 1921 and 1926 to 1931 (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). As one of only two journals of nineteenth century African American women, Dunbar-Nelson's diary provided useful insight into the lives of black women during this time. It "summarizes her position in an era during which law and custom limited access, expectations, and opportunities for black women" (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). Her diary addressed issues such as family, friendship, sexuality, health, professional problems, travels, and often financial difficulties.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
; she then married physician Henry A. Callis
Henry A. Callis
Henry Arthur Callis, M.D. was one of the seven founders of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906. Callis co-authored the Fraternity name with Eugene Jones and became the only Jewel to become General President of the fraternity...
; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist.
Life
Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans to middle-class parents Patricia Wright, a seamstress and former slave, and Joseph Moore, a merchant marine, who were people of color and part of the traditional multiracial CreoleLouisiana Creole people
Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
community of the city. At a time when fewer than 1% of Americans went to college, Moore graduated from Straight University
Straight University
Straight University, after 1915 Straight College, was a historically black college that operated between 1868 and 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was founded by the American Missionary Association.-Campus:...
(now Dillard University
Dillard University
Dillard University is a private, historically black liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 incorporating earlier institutions that went back to 1869, it is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church....
) in 1892 and started work as a teacher in the public school system of New Orleans.
In 1895 her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review. About that time, Moore moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and publisher Paul Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898.
She and Paul Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. Paul Dunbar died in 1906.
Alice Dunbar then moved to Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
and taught at Howard High School
Howard High School of Technology
Howard High School of Technology is a vocational-technical high school in Wilmington, Delaware and is the oldest of four high schools within the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, which includes Delcastle Technical High School in Newport, Hodgson Vo-Tech High School in Glasgow,...
for more than a decade. In 1910 she married Henry A. Callis
Henry A. Callis
Henry Arthur Callis, M.D. was one of the seven founders of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906. Callis co-authored the Fraternity name with Eugene Jones and became the only Jewel to become General President of the fraternity...
, a prominent physician and professor at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, but this marriage ended in divorce.
From 1913 to 1914, Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
(AME Church). In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. They stayed together for the rest of their lives. From 1920, she coedited the Wilmington Advocate, a progressive black newspaper. She also published The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, a literary anthology for a black audience.
Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915 she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
movement. In 1918 she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924 Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from Saint Louis, Missouri, in the US House of Representatives in 1918, was directed at punishing lynchings and mob violence....
, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years. Her journalism career originally began with a rocky start. During the late nineteenth century, it was still unusual for women to work outside of the home, let alone an African American woman, and the journalism business was a hostile, male-dominated field. In her diary, she spoke about the tribulations associated with the professional of journalism – "Damn bad luck I have with my pen. Some fate has decreed I shall never make money by it" (Diary 366). She discusses being denied pay for her articles and issues she had with receiving proper recognition for her work.
She moved from Delaware to Philadelphia in 1932, when her husband joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission. During this time her health was in decline and she died from a heart ailment on September 18, 1935, at the age of sixty. She is interred at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
.
She was made an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta
Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University...
sorority. Her papers were collected by the University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...
.
Her diary was published in 1984 and detailed her life during the years 1921 and 1926 to 1931 (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). As one of only two journals of nineteenth century African American women, Dunbar-Nelson's diary provided useful insight into the lives of black women during this time. It "summarizes her position in an era during which law and custom limited access, expectations, and opportunities for black women" (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). Her diary addressed issues such as family, friendship, sexuality, health, professional problems, travels, and often financial difficulties.
Works
- Violets and Other Tales, Boston: Monthly Review , 1895. Short stories and poems, including "Titée", "A Carnival Jangle", and "Little Miss Sophie". Digital Schomburg.
- The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories, 1899, including "Titée" (revised), "Little Miss Sophie", and "A Carnival Jangle".
- "Wordsworth's Use of Milton's Description of Pandemonium", 1909. in Modern Language Notes.
- Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence, 1914.
- "People of Color in Louisiana", 1917, Journal of Negro History
- Mine Eyes Have Seen, 1918, one-act play, in The CrisisThe CrisisThe Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois , Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W.S. Braithwaite, M. D. Maclean.The original title of the journal was...
- Poems were published in Crisis, Ebony and Topaz, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleNational Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP) - Poems were published in Opportunity, the journal of the Urban League.
- Caroling Dusk - a collection of African-American poets, 1927, including "I Sit and I Sew"
- "Snow in October", and "Sonnet", 1927
- "The Colored United States", 1924, The MessengerThe Messenger MagazineThe Messenger was a political and literary magazine by and for African-American people in the early 20th century that was important in the flowering of the Harlem Renaissance. The Messenger was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A...
, literary and political magazine in NY - "From a Woman's Point of View" ("Une Femme Dit"), 1926, column for the Pittsburgh CourierPittsburgh CourierThe Pittsburgh Courier was an American newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was published from 1907 to 1965. Once the country's most widely circulated Black newspaper, the legacy and influence of the Pittsburgh Courier is unparalleled.A pillar of the Black Press, it rose...
. - "As in a Looking Glass", 1926–1930, column for the Washington Eagle newspaper
- "So It Seems to Alice Dunbar-Nelson", 1930, column for the Pittsburgh Courier
- Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. ed. Gloria T. Hull, New York: Norton, 1984.
- "About Alice Dunbar-Nelson", Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois, 1988.
External links
- Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers, University of Delaware Library