Unsung History21 Feb 2022

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

NOTE: Alice Dunbar-Nelson's story includes acts of sexual violence. Listeners may wish to skip past the introduction to avoid this content.

Poet, essayist, and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson is perhaps best known as the widow of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, but she is a remarkable figure in her own right.

Born in New Orleans in 1875 to a mother who had only recently been freed from slavery and an unknown father, Alice graduated from Straight University (later Dillard University), became a teacher, and quickly started her own writing career. Throughout her life, Alice continued to teach and to write and to speak out on issues of women’s suffrage and civil rights for African Americans.

To learn more about Alice Dunbar-Nelson, I’m joined by Dr. Tara T. Green, Professor of African American and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and author of the 2022 book, Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is: “MSS 0113, Alice Dunbar-Nelson papers, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.”

Additional Sources:

“Feminize Your Canon: Alice Dunbar-Nelson,” by Joanna Scutts, The Paris Review, September 28, 2020.
“An Unsung Legacy: The work and activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson,” by Grace Miller, Unbound Blog, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, March 12, 2020.
“I am an American! The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson [Virtual Exhibit],” The Rosenbach, Free Library of Philadelphia.
“Alice Dunbar-Nelson Reads [Virtual Exhibit],” The University of Delaware.
Writings of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

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