Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar (Alice Ruth Moore) was born in New Orleans, La., July 19, 1875. She attended public school there and later studied at Straight University and was graduated from there in 1892. She taught in the public schools of New Orleans until 1896, when she went to Boston and New York to study. She was appointed teacher in the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1897 and taught there until her marriage to Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar in March, 1898.
In 1895, Mrs. Dunbar's first book, entitled "Violets and Other Tales", was published by a Boston publishing company. The next book, "The Goodness of St. Rocque", published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, in 1899, was favorably received by the best critics. Mrs. Dunbar has written a number of short stories for some of the leading magazines and newspapers in the country, among them, The Ladies' Home Journal, The Southern Workman, Leslie's Weekly, The New York Sun, and The Boston Transcript.
While teaching in New York, Mrs. Dunbar was actively interested in mission work on the east side of New York, conducting classes in manual training and kindergarten after the regular hours of public school work were over. Her entire life was devoted to service and sacrifice for the betterment of society.