1872-1906
Poet.Novelist

"Poet Laureate of the Negro Race."

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of America's most popular poets in the 1900s. He was also the first African American poet to achieve national and international fame. Educator Booker T. Washington called him the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race." One of the most unusual features of Dunbar's poetry was his use of both dialect and standard English, a technique that is no longer as controversial or as startling to readers as it was at the turn of the century. Dunbar's poetry blended the humor, pathos, and determination of African Americans' struggle in and out of slavery. He skillfully used rhythm, satire, narrative, and irony to insist that white Americans see the humanity of a black community they often misunderstood.

Early Life.

Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872 to former plantation slaves. His father, Joshua...