Biography

Poet, essayist, diarist, and activist Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mixed-race parents. Her African American, Anglo, Native American, and Creole heritage contributed to her complex understandings of gender, race, and ethnicity, subjects she often addressed in her work. She graduated from Straight University (now Dillard University) and taught in the New Orleans public schools. Her first book, Violets and Other Tales (1895), was published when she was just 20. Her second collection, The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories (1899) explored the lives of creole and anglicized characters. Works exploring racism and racial oppression were largely rejected by publishers during her lifetime, a situation which, according to Sheila Smith McKoy, “made it difficult for both readers and critics to access Dunbar-Nelson’s work.” (Full Bio)

Plays

Mine Eyes Have Seen (1918)

Written in the final year of World War I, Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s Mine Eyes Have Seen was published in The Crisis. In a manufacturing city somewhere in the Northern United States, an African-American family has been destroyed by violence and racism. A man was lynched and his wife died of heartbreak leaving their three children to fend for themselves. The children are now young adults, but Lucy, the youngest, and Dan, the oldest, are disabled and reliant on their brother Chris to support them. When Chris comes home from work with the news that he has been drafted, their livelihood is in jeopardy. However, Chris decides he must stay to support his siblings and, on top of that, doesn’t want to serve a country that has done nothing but beat down and destroy his people–the black citizens of America. Dan vehemently disagrees with Chris’s decision and when their Jewish friend, an Irish widow, a veteran of the war, Chris’s sweetheart, and a settlement worker show up to their home, the discussion intensifies as they all give their opinions regarding race and duty to one’s country. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 8 (4f, 4m)

Characters: Dan, Chris, Lucy, Mrs. O’Neill, Jake, Julia, Bill Harvey, Cornelia Lewis

Publication: Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans 1847 to Today. Edited by James V. Hatch and Ted Shine. Free Press, 1996. (Link)