Paul Laurence Dunbar's Past Had a Lasting Effect on his Future
             Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of two former slaves, absorbed his mother's wisdom and stories told by his father. As one of the last of a generation to interact with actual slaves, he was able to use his father's story telling spirit and mother's wisdom to depict the life experiences of African Americans.
             Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872 to Joshua Dunbar and Matilda Murphy Dunbar in Dayton, Ohio. He was taught to read wisdom. He also took in the stories told by his father, Joshua Dunbar, who escaped from enslavement in Kentucky and served in the Massachusetts 55th Regiment during the Civil War. Paul Laurence Dunbar was never enslaved, he was one of the last of a generation to have ongoing contact with those had been. Dunbar was steeped in the oral tradition during his formative years and he would go on to become a powerful interpreter of the African American folk experience in literature and song. The only African American in his Dayton, Ohio Central High School class, young Paul already showed literacy talent. He was named class poet, president of the literacy society, and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. Although he couldn't afford to continue his education after high school, within two years after graduating he had some his poems published of the Dayton Herald. Soon after, Wilbur Wright (one of the two first-flight brothers) financed Dunbar's founding of the Dayton Tattler, which Dunbar also edited. When Tattler folded, Dunbar sought jobs with local newspapers, but not one was willing to hire an African American, regardless of his talent. With
             that avenue closed to him, he got work as a hotel elevator operator, which allowed him time for writing. (Strickland, 95)
             In 1892, one of Dunbar's former teachers asked him to address the Western Association of Writers in Dayton. At the meeting, Dunbar was int...