Alice Dunbar-Nelson wrote poetry, fiction, and journalism, taught high school, and was an activist for civil rights and women’s rights. Her books include Violets and Other Tales (1895), and The Goodness of St. Rocque (1899). She edited two anthologies: Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence (1914) and The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer (1920). Dunbar-Nelson was a regular columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier and the Washington Eagle and co-editor of the A.M.E. Review. She also served as a Mid-Atlantic Field Organizer for women’s suffrage, a representative for the Woman’s Committee on the Council of Defense, and was a popular speaker to a wide range of groups.
Dunbar-Nelson married Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1898 and moved to DC where her husband briefly took at job at the Library of Congress. Dunbar-Nelson remained in the area after Dunbar’s early death, living in Maryland and Delaware but returning often to DC, where she was an active member of Georgia Douglas Johnson‘s literary salon. She married two more times, but always retained her eminent first husband’s last name.
The Homes
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
1934 4th St. NW
Located in Ledroit Park neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek