On March 21, 1899, Paul Laurence Dunbar appeared in Boston alongside Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. The three men were considered to be the leading voices of Black America.
Next Tuesday in the Hollis Street Theatre, Boston will be presented with a unique feature. The three foremost representatives of what education has done for the American negro during the past 30 years will be present. Booker T. Washington, the thoughtful, wise, industrious, courageous orator, and industrial educator and leader of the colored people; Prof William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, a highly honored graduate of Harvard and Berlin universities, still young in years but rightly accorded to be the greatest negro scholar yet produced in this country; Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet, whose genius Frederick Douglass heard of and hailed with delight, whose sweet lines caught the admiring eye and lasting friendship of James Whitcomb Riley, and whose merit although hidden under a dark skin was recognized and fearlessly proclaimed to the American public by William Dean Howells. These are the natural leaders of the American negro, and they are to be the speakers next Tuesday afternoon, and who in the future will be heard as authorities upon the race problem in this country.
"Elevator Boy Who Became a Poet." The Boston Sunday Globe (Boston, Massachusetts). March 19, 1899. Page 25.
The event was a fundraiser for the Tuskegee Institute, an Alabama school that provided vocational training to African Americans. Washington was the founder and principal of the school.
The Tuskegee matinee at the Hollis Street theater yesterday afternoon brought together for the first time three of the leading colored men of this country. There never has been such a largely attended meeting in the interest of the Negro in this city. The theatre was filled from the orchestra to the gallery, and standing room was not plentiful. Bishop William Lawrence presided. Addresses were made by Prof. Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute and Prof. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois of Atlanta University. Paul Laurence Dunbar read some of his dialect poems and the Hampton Institute Quartet sang some of their plantation melodies.
Bishop Lawrence introduced Mr. Dunbar, who was greeted with a storm of applause. He recited with great pathos his poem, "The Poet and His Song." This was followed with "The Party," a dialect piece, which captivated his audience. Further down on the program he recited "The Warrior's Prayer," which won great applause. This was followed by a dialect piece, "When Malindy Sings," which brought out tremendous applause, and the encore was "When the Co'n Pone's Hot." All are of Mr. Dunbar's production, and his first appearance and recitation to a Boston public of his works has opened a way for a future welcome to this city.
"Negroes' Needs." The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts). March 22, 1899.
The audience was comprised primarily of white women, and a newspaper article listed about one hundred of them by name.
The people of Boston this afternoon expressed anew their interest in the Tuskegee Institute, the greatest of industrial schools conducted by the colored people themselves, by attending in large numbers the matinee entertainment given at the Hollis Street Theatre. The high character of the audience can be fairly judged by the following-named patronesses.
The occasion was one of more than ordinary significance, for it brought together on the same platform three of the most noteworthy representatives of the awakening intellectual life of the race -- Booker T. Washington, W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Each contributed to the entertainment of the audience.
"In Aid of Tuskegee." [Unidentified newspaper clipping. March 21, 1899.] Scrapbook No. 1, Page 62. Alice Dunbar-Nelson papers, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library (Newark, Delaware). MSS 0113, Box 12, F230 - 232.
Paul's wife Alice described the event to Paul's mother Matilda in Washington, D. C.
The theatre was crowded, there was hardly standing room, and it was one of the finest audiences ever gathered in Boston, composed of the best people here. Paul was enthusiastically received. The people went wild over him and I wished you could have been there for I know you would have been proud. This Boston meeting meant a great deal, and we are all very proud that it is such a success. I am so proud that his first reading in Boston came before such a cultured and elegant audience too.
After the reading we went to a very swell tea and had a splendid time. Only the very blue-bloods were there. Paul had a dinner in the evening. A club gave a reception for him but we didn't go. We have a great many invitations to dinner and teas but I don't see how we can go to all.
Alice Moore Dunbar to Matilda Dunbar, March 22, 1899. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 2).
Booker T. Washington considered the fundraiser to be very successful, according to an account written in one of his books.
In the spring of 1899, a rather notable meeting was held in Boston at the Hollis Street Theatre. This meeting was gotten up in the interest of the Tuskegee Institute. I invited to speak with me at this meeting Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois and Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dr. Du Bois read an original story, and Mr. Dunbar recited from his own poems. The theatre was filled with representatives of the most cultured and wealthy men and women in Boston, and was said to be the most successful meeting of the kind that had been held for a good while. An admission was charged at the door, and a generous sum was raised for the school. This was the first time that Mr. Dunbar had appeared in Boston, and his readings produced a most favorable effect.
The Story of My Life and Work, by Booker T. Washington. J. L. Nichols & Co. (Naperville, Illinois). 1901. Page 271.
Du Bois also wrote about the Boston fundraiser in his autobiography, recalling Washington's fatigue during the event.
In 1899, Mr. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar and myself spoke on the same platform at the Hollis Street Theatre, Boston, before a distinguished audience. Mr. Washington was not at his best, and friends immediately raised a fund which sent him to Europe for a three months' rest.
The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois, by W. E. B. Du Bois. International Publishers (New York, New York). 1968. Page 237.