Paul Laurence Dunbar

Black History Mini Docs salutes the great poet, novelist and playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872. His parents who were enslaved in Kentucky and freed after the American Civil War moved to Dayton, Ohio. Dunbar began to write stories and verse as a child and published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper. He was also president of his high school's literary society.
Much of Dunbar's more popular work in his lifetime was written in the "Negro dialect" associated with the antebellum South, though he also used the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley. Dunbar was one of the first Black writers to establish an international reputation. He wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy “In Dahomey”, the first all Black musical produced on Broadway in New York in 1903. The musical later toured in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels. Since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 33 on February 9, 1906.
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