The Poetry Of Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton Ohio. His parents had been slaves in Kentucky before the Civil War. By the time Paul was 12 his parents separated. By 16 he was already being published as a poet in The Herald, a local Dayton newspaper. After completing his formal schooling in 1891, Paul was employed as an elevator operator, on a salary of four dollars a week. His hopes of a legal career floundered on a lack of funds and racial discrimination. However he wrote his poetry a