Alice Dunbar-Nelson
- Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was born on July 18, 1875 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a middle-classed, mixed-race family by Patricia Wright and Joseph Moore.
- Alice's parents were both former slaves, and growing up, her father took on a job to serve as a merchant marine, while Alice's mother, Patricia, was a seamstress.
DEATH
poetry
Farewell
Alice Dunbar-nelson wrote many award winning poems such as :
Love and the Butterfly
- Sonnet -Love and the butterfly
-Three thoughts -Impressions
-fare well -Amid the roses
-new years day -Legend of the newspaper
-Paul to Virginia -In memorian
-The idler
- Alice Dunbar Nelson attended a public school in New Orleans and enrolled in a teachers training program at Straight University, and graduated in 1892.
- After graduating, Alice then went on to teach at Wilmington Howard High School for six years.
- Alice Dunbar Nelson held many positions throughout her life as a teacher, executive secretary, and field organizer in her region for women's suffrage,
Sonnet
I heard a merry voice one day
And glancing at my side,
Fair Love, all breathless, flushed with play,
A butterfly did ride.
"Whither away, oh sportive boy?"
I asked, he tossed his head;
Laughing aloud for purest joy,
And past me swiftly sped.
Next day I heard a plaintive cry
And Love crept in my arms;
Weeping he held the butterfly,
Devoid of all its charms.
Sweet words of comfort, whispered I
Into his dainty ears,
But Love still hugged the butterfly,
And bathed its wounds with tears.
- September 18,1935, Alice passed away at the age of 60 due to heart failure.
- Alice died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was buried at the Wilmington and Brandy wine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.
I had no thought of violets of late,
The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet
In wistful April days, when lovers mate
And wander through the fields in raptures sweet.
The thought of violets meant florists' shops,
And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine;
And garish lights, and mincing little fops
And cabarets and songs, and deadening wine.
So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed,
I had forgot wide fields, and clear brown streams;
The perfect loveliness that God has made,--
Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams.
And now--unwittingly, you've made me dream
Of violets, and my soul's forgotten gleam.
Farewell, sweetheart, and again farewell;
To day we part, and who can tell
If we shall e'er again
Meet, and with clasped hands
Renew our vows of love, and forget
The sad, dull pain.
Dear heart, 'tis bitter thus to lose thee
And think mayhap, you will forget me;
And yet, I thrill
As I remember long and happy days
Fraught with sweet love and pleasant memories
That linger still
You go to loved ones who will smile
And clasp you in their arms, and all the while
I stay and moan
For you, my love, my heart and strive
To gather up life's dull, gray thread
And walk alone.
Aye, with you love the red and gold
Goes from my life, and leaves it cold
And dull and bare,
Why should I strive to live and learn
And smile and jest, and daily try
You from my heart to tare?
Nay, sweetheart, rather would I lie
Me down, and sleep for aye; or fly
To regions far
Where cruel Fate is not and lovers live
Nor feel the grim, cold hand of Destiny
Their way to bar.
I murmur not, dear love, I only say
Again farewell. God bless the day
On which we met,
And bless you too, my love, and be with you
In sorrow or in happiness, nor let you
E'er me forget.
Books
Alice Dunbar-nelson also had many books
for example:
-Laughing to stop myself from crying
-Violets and other tales
- The goodness of ST.Rocque, and other stories
-The works of Alice Dunbar-nelson/1988
-Masterpieces of negro eloquence/1914
-The Goodness of St.Rocque/1899
Alice Dunbar Nelson's achievements
- She was active in the Women's Club movement
- Worked for suffrage, helped found the Industrial School for Colored Girls in Delaware
- 1922 was a leader in the fight for passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
- In (1914) Her work as a public speaker and interest in oratory provided the foundation for two edited volumes, Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence
Nelson kept diaries and scrapbooks which detail her personal and professional activities. On display is a page from her women’s suffrage scrapbook.
Writing with Scissors, along with analysis of Alice Dunbar Nelson’s suffrage scrapbooks
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.
Educator, journalist, civil rights activist, and suffragette Nelson (1875–1935) campaigned tirelessly throughout the 1920s and 1930s for African Americans’ and women’s rights.
Alice Dunbar Nelson