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Decolonize Black History Month

Alice Ruth Moore, Violets and Other Tales

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Day 04: Alice Ruth Moore Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 19, 1875. She was trained to be a teacher at Straight University, graduating in 1890. While working as a teacher, she also began her career as a writer. Moore's oeuvre was wide. She wrote poems, short stories, personal essays, novels, and journalistic pieces. Her first published work was a series of poems and short stories titled Violets and Other Tales.

Moore had three husbands, including the renown poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. She was also known to have relationships with women. Moore lived, wrote, and taught in many different cities in the United States such as Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Washington DC. In 1902 she moved to Wilmington, Delaware where she spent many years teaching at both the high school and college level. While in Delaware she co-edited the Wilmington Advocate with her husband Robert J. Nelson. She also took time out to attend Cornell University.

Moore's writing granted her a sizable national following. She began giving lectures and ultimately published two volumes of her speeches. Moore also worked to champion the voices of others by publishing a literary anthology called The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer. Moore died in 1935.