Born to mixed-race parents, Alice Dunbar Nelson’s experiences of discrimination and oppression paved the way for her unique insights into the various social classes, ethnicities and races over the course of the early 20th century, making her a prolific figure during the Harlem Renaissance.
In the year 1875, Alice Dunbar Nelson, born Alice Ruth Moore, was born in New Orleans to a former slave and a Black seamstress. She grew up as a part of the Creole (mixed race) community within the city. At the age of 15, she went to Straight University in New Orleans for a two-year teacher training program. She also later studied at Cornell University, where she studied psychology and educational testing. At Straight University, she was known as “a quick…show more content… During this time, she had managed to keep up her passion of writing essays, poems, and short stories, all of which she would later compile together to make her first published book, Violets and Other Tales, published in 1895. Shortly after, she moved to New York, where she co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission, a home for black females who had recently moved in from the Southern states. The goal of the White Rose Mission was to help these women integrate into New York society, and get a stable job so that they may one day live independently. Much of her work was heavily inspired off both her time in New York, and her failed first marriage. Her deep understanding of various social classes and experiences of discrimination are echoed through her melancholic, somber prose, which serves to accurately encapsulate the struggles of African Americans in Harlem during this time. This precise, somber portrayal can perhaps be most apparent through I Sit and Sew, which focuses on the struggles of of a…show more content… Revolving around the portrayal of a woman who is confined to domestic tasks as she yearns for the battlefield, this poem touches heavily on the confined gender roles of this era. Like many other women during this time, Dunbar Nelson struggled to participate actively in World War I, and racial discrimination on all fronts prevented such action. In the poem, she deems her duties “a useless task” and describes “hands grown tired, … head weighed down with dreams” in a fittingly melancholic tone. In other words, this poem is actually meant to address the minority culture (women, African Americans), who are expected to sit on the sidelines and contribute to the growth of white culture through slave labor and low wages. They are expected to fill this role and remain quiet, rather than fighting for their own dreams of equal rights and independence. Her interest in the plight of women, black soldiers and their families paved the way for her participation in this portion of the war effort. She volunteered her services to the Circle of Negro War
