On November 2, 1900, Paul Laurence Dunbar recited his poetry during an event at a church in Washington, D. C., along with the African American violinist Clarence White. Paul was 28 years old and living in Washington with his wife and mother.
Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar, who has won the admiration of people all over the country by his pleasing manner of reading his own poems, will appear on the program of the Clarence C. White violin recital November 2nd.
"Town Topics." The Colored American (Washington, D. C.). October 13, 1900. Page 8.
The mere mention of the names of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Clarence C. White in connection with a program is sufficient guarantee that you will be satisfactorily entertained. Go hear them Friday November 2nd at Metropolitan A. M. E. church.
The Colored American (Washington, D. C.). October 27, 1900. Page 3.
There is to be given a violin recital by Mr. Clarence C. White at Metropolitan A. M. E. Church tomorrow evening. Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar, the poet, will also appear and read from his own poems. Mr. White, after taking a course at the Oberlin, Ohio, conservatory, studied under one of the professors of the Berlin conservatory, and has become quite an artist.
"A Violin Recital." The Evening Star (Washington, D. C.). November 1, 1900. Page 3.
The Metropolitan A. M. E. church was comfortably filled Friday evening November 2nd at the recital given by Mr. Clarence C. White and others. The audience was the most representative and cultured one that has been in the church for an entertainment for a long time and it was not disappointed. A most interesting program had been arranged by Mr. White. From a musical and an artistic point, it was a grand success as well as from a financial point. All Washington is loud in praises of the excellent work done by Mr. White and those who assisted him.
"The White Recital." The Colored American (Washington, D. C.). November 10, 1900. Page 3.
Clarence White was about seven years younger than Paul, and they had much in common: both lived in Ohio before moving to Washington, where they collaborated with Will Marion Cook and Joseph Douglass; and they both went to London and met the Black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. White studied music at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, an institution that welcomed students of color long before they were admitted in most colleges.
Mr. Clarence C. White, the popular young violinist, has finished his course of music at Oberlin and is back in Washington to stay. He will accept a limited number of pupils and concert engagements at intervals. Mr. White is a most promising young man.
The Colored American (Washington, D. C.). July 14, 1900. Page 10.
White composed a song based on one of Paul's poems, and he was familiar enough to the Dunbars that Alice mentioned him while describing a cooking accident she had in the kitchen.
A committee of colored citizens will tender a public reception tomorrow night in the Institutional Church to Clarence C. White, the colored violinist and song composer of Washington, D. C. Mr. White heads a program made up from the compositions of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his own works. Five songs composed by Mr. White will be sung for the first time in public. The words for four of these songs were written by William Moore of this city. The fifth song was composed for a lyric written by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Mr. White leaves shortly for England, where he will study the violin and composition under Coleridge-Taylor.
"To Honor Clarence C. White." Chicago Record-Herald (Chicago, Illinois). September 1901.
I suppose by this time you have Paul's letter telling you how I tried to fry my hand. Gre-en! as Clarence White would say. I was cooking a spring chicken in butter sauce, and there was plenty of cayenne pepper in it, when I dropped the whole chicken in the whole pot of butter, my hand tumbled and the blessed chicken fell, plop and the whole pot of butter got on my whole hand and I grabbed up a dish rag that was full of salt and rubbed it in the raw flesh. Oh, but I howled!
Alice Moore Dunbar to Matilda Dunbar, October 14, 1901. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 2).