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Dunbar House
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Paul Laurence Dunbar rose from a childhood of poverty in Dayton to international acclaim as an
African-American writer and poet. Born in 1872, Dunbar dies at the age of 34 of tuberculosis. In
his short lifetime, he published 21 books. At the age of fourteen, Dunbar's poems had been
published in the Dayton Herald. After graduation from high school, Dunbar took a job as an
elevator operator, but continued to work on his writing. He could not have published his first few
books without financial and moral support from area residents who believed in his ability,
including Dayton natives Wilbur and Orville Wright. In 1893, Dunbar's collection of poetry, Oak and
Ivy, was published. To help pay the publishing costs, he sold the book for one dollar to people
riding in his elevator.
His own experiences and those of his parents, who both were former slaves, inspired Dunbar's
writing and poetry. His writing expresses the problems African-Americans faced as a race.
Dunbar was a champion of African-American dignity. The dialectic and standard English- styled
works he created during the turn-of-the-century inspired writers, such as Langston Hughes and
W.E. B. DuBois, who were great influences during the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s
and 30s.
In 1936, Dunbar's boyhood home became the first state memorial for an African-American.
Paul Laurence Dunbar House is one of more than sixty sites operated by the Ohio Historical
Society. The Ohio Historical Society is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as the state's
partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio's history, archaeology, and natural history.
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