28 Black People Who Should Inspire You -- Paul Laurence Dunbar

He was born to former slaves and had to sell his poems in an elevator, but he became the first black poet to achieve national success.

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Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was born to two former slaves in the years immediately following the U.S. Civil War. Throughout his youth, Dunbar was an exceptional student but didn’t have the money for college, so he became an elevator operator instead. As a student and later, as an elevator operator, Dunbar continued writing poetry. In 1893, he self-published a collection of his poems called Oak and Ivy, which he sold to people riding his elevator.

That same year, Dunbar moved to Chicago where he met Frederick Douglass. Douglass, using his considerable influence, arranged poetry readings for Dunbar. His sphere of influence began to grow but he still had a very difficult time supporting his mother with his meager earnings from poetry. Though not very lucrative, his poetry did earn him status as the first black poet to achieve national acclaim.

In 1898, Dunbar was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He blamed his ill health on dust from his job at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. To alleviate his coughing, Dunbar’s physician prescribed whiskey. He soon became dependant on alcohol. Finally, in 1906, Paul Laurence Dunbar died at the age of 33. He produced twelve books of poetry during his short life.

TL;DR

Born to former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first black poet to achieve national acclaim and acceptance.
Dunbar was proficient in both formal poetry and dialectic verse.

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