This great black poet's father volunteered for the 55th Mass..........lead by a white Col.........and the movie "Glory" is about them.............Col. Shaw, like Dc's Shaw neighborhood and library.....

Early life[edit]

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born at 311 Howard Street in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872, to parents who had been slaves in Kentucky before the American Civil War.^[1] After being emancipated, his mother Matilda had moved to Dayton with other family members, including her two sons Robert and William from her first marriage. Dunbar's father Joshua had escaped from slavery in Kentucky before the war ended. He traveled to Massachusetts and volunteered for the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first two black units to serve in the war. The senior Dunbar also served in the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment. Paul Dunbar was born six months after Joshua and Matilda married on Christmas Eve, 1871.^[1]

Dunbar's parents began having marital problems a few months after their son's birth. They also had a daughter together, whom Joshua ignored. Because of their problems, Matilda took all her children and left him.^[2] Joshua Dunbar died on August 16, 1885, when his son Paul was 12 years old.^[3]

Dunbar wrote his first poem at the age of six and gave his first public recital at the age of nine. His mother Matilda assisted him in his schooling, having learned to read expressly for that purpose. She often read the Bible with him, and thought he might become a minister for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.^[4] It was the first independent black denomination, founded in Philadelphia in the early 19th century.

Dunbar was the only African-American student during his years at Central High School in Dayton. Well-accepted, he was elected as president of the school's literary society, and became the editor of the school newspaper and a member of the debate club.^[4]