Alice Dunbar Nelson photograph

Portrait of Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson, wife of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, ca. 1907-1909. The Dunbar's were married in March, 1898 and separated four years later, but never divorced. Paul Laurence Dunbar died in 1906 and four years later Alice married Harry A Callis, a physician. This marriage ended in divorce. In 1916, she married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist. Alice was a poet, journalist and political activist. She was a graduate of Straight University (now Dillard University). She died on September 18, 1935, in Wilmington, Delaware