Nelson, Alice Moore Dunbar, 1875-1935

Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a writer, teacher, and activist for African-American Civil rights, was extremely active in state and regional politics. She was married to the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar from 1989 until 1902. She was born on July 19, 1875, as Alice Ruth Moore, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended public school in New Orleans and enrolled in a teacher's training program at Straight University in 1890. Upon receiving her degree in 1892, she began teaching in New Orleans.

Alice Ruth Moore's first book, Violets and Other Tales, a collection of stories, was published in 1895. In 1897, Moore moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she taught at the White Rose Mission. At this time Moore began corresponding with the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and in March, 8, 1898, she married Dunbar and moved to Washington, D.C. The marriage lasted until 1902, when they were legally separated; Dunbar died on February 6, 1906.

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