Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer" (1920)
The DUNBAR SPEAKER and ENTERTAINER
Containing the Best Prose and Poetic Selections by the NEGRO RACE With Programs arranged for special entertainments
Edited by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson And an Introduction by Leslie Pinckney Hill
Illustrated
Published by J. L. Nichols and CO.
Naperville Ill.
Copyright 1920 by J.L. Nichols and CO.
Permission to use some of the copyrighted material in this volume is hereby acknowledged by special arrangement with the authors and with Messrs. F.P. Collier and Son, Dodd, Mead and Co., Doubleday Page and CO., The Cornhill Company, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Crisis Magazine, and others
FOREWORD (Leslie Pinckney Hill) 13
INTRODUCTION 14
Book 1. JUVENILE, 15-30
The Birdlet Alexander Poushkin 17
The Sparrow's Fall Frances E. W. Harper 18
The Seedling Paul Laurence Dunbar 19
A song for Arbor Day D. T. Williamson 20
Thanksgiving William Stanley Braithwaite 22
The Cucuya Anonymous 23
The Clock that Gains Anonymous 25
A June Song Charlotte Forten Grimke 26
A City Garden William Stanley Braithwaite 28
Book II. DIALECT (Humorous), 31-57
In the Morning Paul Lawrence Dunbar 33
Dat Ol' Mare o' Mine Paul Lawrence Dunbar 36
The Case o' Ca'line: A Kitchen Monologue Paul Lawrence Dunbar 38 [prose]
Tunk James Weldon Johnson 52
Uncle Ike's Roosters Anonymous 55
Book III. DIALECT (Serious), 59-79
A Little Christmas Basket Paul Laurence Dunbar 61
When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers Paul Laurence Dunbar 62
The Praline Woman Alice Ruth Moore 65
Book IV. DRAMATIC
The Band of Gideon Joseph H. Cotter, Jr. 83
The White Witch James Weldon Johnson 85
The Unsung Heroes Paul Laurence Dunbar 87
Black Samson of Brandywine Paul Laurence Dunbar 89
The Haunted Oak Paul Laurence Dunbar 91
Ode to Ethiopia Paul Laurence Dunbar 94
The Finish of Patsy Barnes Paul Laurence Dunbar 96
A Prophecy Reverdy C. Ransom 98
Hear, O Church E. A. Long 99
Dessalines William Edgar Easton 100 [Prose]
The Sisters Charles W. Chestnutt 103 [Prose]
The Modern Christmas on the Plantation W. E. B. DuBois 110 [Prose]
The Lights at Carney's Point Alice Dunbar-Nelson 132
How France Received the Negro Soldiers Ralph W. Tyler 136
Shall I say, My Son, You Are Branded? Georgia Douglas Johnson 143
In Flanders Fields, An Echo Orlando C. W. Taylor 144
I Sit and Sew Alice Dunbar-Nelson 145
Whether White or Black, a Man Ethel Davis 158
Ethiopian Maid Walter Everette Hawkins 161
Mat D. Webster Davis 162
Belgium Lester B. Granger 163
O Black and Unknown Birds James Weldon Johnson 167
Mine Eyes Have Seen Alice Dunbar-Nelson 171
Winter Morning Alexander Poushkin 182
Winter Evening Alexander Poushkin 183
Friendship Alexander Poushkin 184
The Bard Alexander Poushkin 184
Book V. ORATORICAL, 185-233
Frederick Douglass J. W. Chipman 187
A Negro's Rebuke Roscoe Conkling Simmons 190
An Appeal for Constitutional Rights Clayton Powell 191
The Fourth of July Frederick Douglas 194
Lincoln and Douglass Alice Dunbar-Nelson 197
The Better Part Booker T. Washington 204
Memorial Day in the South David B. Fulton 210
Abraham Lincoln Frederick Douglass 216
The Boys of Howard School Alice Dunbar-Nelson 226
The Mulatto to His Critics Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. 228
Crispus Attucks George C. Ruffin 231
Book VI. COMMEMORATIVE, 236-277
To the Negro Farmers Alice Dunbar-Nelson 240
Memorial Day Alice Ruth Moore 251
George Washington Phyllis Wheatley 253
Abraham Lincoln David B. Fulton 255
Charles Sumner Charlotte Forten Grimke 258
Nat Turner T. Thomas Fortune 262
Emancipation D. Webster Davis 264
Fifty Years James Weldon Johnson 270
Booker T. Washington J. R. Dungee 274
INTRODUCTION (Alice Dunbar-Nelson)
VOLUMES might be written about the manner of presenting the selections in this little volume. Oratorical rules and elocutionary efforts have been written about time out of mind, and it is fairly safe to say that none of them ever made a really good speaker. The one safe guide is one's feelings. Be sure that the selection has become a part of your inner feeling, and the expression, gestures, proper inflections, will come naturally. Stilted gestures, learned by rote, fail to impress an audience, as inflections and modulations learned by rule are mechanical and unpleasant to the hearers.
Before you begin to learn anything to recite, first read it over and find out if it fires you with enthusiasm. If it does, make it a part of yourself, put yourself in the place of the speaker whose words you are memorizing, get on, fire with the thought, the sentiment, the emotion—then throw yourself into it in your endeavor to make others feel as you feel, see as you see, understand what you understand. Lose yourself, free yourself from physical consciousness, forget that those in front of you are a part of an audience, think of them as some persons whom you must make understand what is thrilling you—and you will be a great speaker.