DSU Hosts Play on Poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson March 2

Delaware State University will host a program presentation of Don-Del Enterprises that celebrates the life of African-American educator, poet, journalist and political activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson at 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, March 2-3 in the Education and Humanities Theatre on campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, Ms. Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) was one of the prominent African-Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Great Poetic movement of 1889. Her first husband was the renowned poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Ms. Dunbar-Nelson would later become well=known in African-American journalism circles. She also 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 wrote numerous articles 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.

From about 1920 on, she 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.

Ms. Dunbar-Nelson also taught at the Summer School of Methods for African-American teachers at the State College for Colored Students (later DSU) in 1910.