today in Black history - Feb 9

Prolific poet, novelist, essayist Paul Laurence Dunbar died on February 9, 1906, at the age of 33.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most significant African American writers of his era. In his short life, he produced and published his poetry prolifically. Learn more about the life and legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar in this PBS documentary. You can also do a deep dive on Dunbar using this Library of Congress digital resource guide.

Dunbar’s most famous work is, perhaps, the poem, We Wear the Mask. It is one of my personal favorite poems. If you want to get technical, it is a rondeau and uses that poetic form to beautifully capture a subject that has been a powerful and repeated theme in much of Black art over the course of generations (I’m sure some of you will remember Fugees The Mask). Dunbar’s poem, in just 15 lines, captures a critical element that is at the core of the Black experience in America:

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

       We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

       We wear the mask!

—Paul Laurence Dunbar