Paul Laurence Dunbar school names -- ep. Howard Rambsy II

 | A brief take on the nationwide naming of schools after Paul Laurence Dunbar, tracing how the poet’s enduring influence led communities to commemorate Black educational excellence through his name.

Written by Howard Rambsy II 

Read by Kassandra Timm

Transcript

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Fort Worth, Texas.
 Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia.
 Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky.
 Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary in East St. Louis, Illinois.

 Say his name. Say his name. Say his name. You’ve probably noticed that one Black writer’s name appears on quite a few schools. We noticed too.

 You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions — a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American artistic productions and more.

 Paul Laurence Dunbar’s name appears on a remarkable number of U.S. schools, from public elementary campuses to high schools and vocational institutions, making him one of the most commemorated Black literary figures in American educational naming practices.

 Poet, fiction writer, and pioneering voice of Black American letters, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most widely read African American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872 to formerly enslaved parents, he gained national fame for his dialect or vernacular poems as well as his formal literary verse. Though his life was brief,  he died in 1906 at age 33, his influence has endured, shaping generations of writers and securing his presence on school buildings across the country.

 One of the earliest and most influential schools named for the poet is in Washington, D.C. Originally known as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and later the M Street School, it was renamed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1916. In 2015, Alison Stewart published First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School, documenting its extraordinary history. Also in 1916, Baltimore founded a school named after Dunbar for Black students.

 In 1929, a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas adopted the Dunbar name, and in 1931 a Paul Laurence Dunbar High School opened in Dayton, Ohio — Dunbar’s hometown. Over the decades, Dunbar schools continued to appear across the nation.

The practice of naming schools after Dunbar reflected a desire among African Americans to link the educational pursuits of their children with a widely respected literary figure whose achievements embodied excellence, creativity, and cultural pride.

Today, more than 50 schools in roughly 22 states bear the Black poet’s name. That Paul Laurence Dunbar’s legacy is woven so deeply into the nation’s educational landscape stands as evidence of his remarkable reception.

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy, edited by Elizabeth Cali, and read by me, Kassandra Timm.

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