Alice Dunbar Nelson, born July 19, 1875, was an American poet, journalist and political activist, the daughter of an African-American seamstress and former slave and a white seaman. She was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

In 1895, her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published. About that time, Moore moved to Boston and then New York City. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Manhattan. She and Paul Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs.

Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans’ and women’s rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915, she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman’s suffrage movement. In 1918, she was field representative for the Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense.

In essays such as Negro Women in War Work (1919), Politics in Delaware (1924), Hysteria, and Is It Time for Negro Colleges in the South to Be Put in the Hands of Negro Teachers? Dunbar-Nelson explored the role of black women in the workforce, education, and the antilynching movement.