Classic stories of the author Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

In her early years, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a teacher who went on to become politically active for both African-American and women’s rights. Alice 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. She wrote a collection of short stories and poems titled, Violets and Other Tales.

Classics

Violets.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

I.
"And she tied a bunch of violets with a tress of her pretty brown hair."

She sat in the yellow glow of the lamplight softly humming these words. It was Easter evening, and the newly risen ... [+]

Classics

African American Literature 19th Century 20th Century 4 min

Anarchy Alley.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

To the casual observer, the quaint, narrow, little alley that lies in the heart of the city is no more than any other of the numerous divisions of streets in which New Orleans delights. But to the ... [+]

Classics

19th Century 20th Century African American Literature 1 min

I Sit and Sew

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems,
My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams—
The panoply of war, the martial tred of men,
Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken
Of ... [+]

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Violets.

Anarchy Alley.

I Sit and Sew