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Sister Josepha
Sister Josepha by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
- GenresShort Stories
18 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2001
29 people want to read
About the author
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
101 books43 followersAlice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 – September 18, 1935) was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; she then married physician Henry A. Callis; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist.
Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans to middle-class parents Patricia Wright, a seamstress and former slave, and Joseph Moore, a merchant marine, who were people of color and part of the traditional multiracial Creole community of the city. At a time when fewer than 1% of Americans went to college, Moore graduated from Straight University (later merged into Dillard University) in 1892 and started work as a teacher in the public school system of New Orleans.
In 1895, her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review. About that time, Moore moved to Boston and then New York. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and journalist Paul Laurence Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898.
From 1913 to 1914, Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church). In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. They stayed together for the rest of their lives. From 1920, she coedited the Wilmington Advocate, a progressive black newspaper. She also published The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, a literary anthology for a black audience.
Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915, she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage movement. In 1918, she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924, Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years. Her journalism career originally began with a rocky start. During the late 19th century, it was still unusual for women to work outside of the home, let alone an African-American woman, and the journalism business was a hostile, male-dominated field. In her diary, she spoke about the tribulations associated with the profession of journalism – "Damn bad luck I have with my pen. Some fate has decreed I shall never make money by it" (Diary 366). She discusses being denied pay for her articles and issues she had with receiving proper recognition for her work.
She moved from Delaware to Philadelphia in 1932, when her husband joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission. During this time, her health was in decline and she died from a heart ailment on September 18, 1935, at the age of sixty. She is interred at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.
She was made an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Her papers were collected by the University of Delaware.
Her diary was published in 1984 and detailed her life during the years 1921 and 1926 to 1931 (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). As one of only two journals of 19th-ce
Alice Ruth Moore was born in New Orleans to middle-class parents Patricia Wright, a seamstress and former slave, and Joseph Moore, a merchant marine, who were people of color and part of the traditional multiracial Creole community of the city. At a time when fewer than 1% of Americans went to college, Moore graduated from Straight University (later merged into Dillard University) in 1892 and started work as a teacher in the public school system of New Orleans.
In 1895, her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review. About that time, Moore moved to Boston and then New York. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and journalist Paul Laurence Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898.
From 1913 to 1914, Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church). In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. They stayed together for the rest of their lives. From 1920, she coedited the Wilmington Advocate, a progressive black newspaper. She also published The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, a literary anthology for a black audience.
Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915, she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage movement. In 1918, she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924, Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years. Her journalism career originally began with a rocky start. During the late 19th century, it was still unusual for women to work outside of the home, let alone an African-American woman, and the journalism business was a hostile, male-dominated field. In her diary, she spoke about the tribulations associated with the profession of journalism – "Damn bad luck I have with my pen. Some fate has decreed I shall never make money by it" (Diary 366). She discusses being denied pay for her articles and issues she had with receiving proper recognition for her work.
She moved from Delaware to Philadelphia in 1932, when her husband joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission. During this time, her health was in decline and she died from a heart ailment on September 18, 1935, at the age of sixty. She is interred at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.
She was made an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Her papers were collected by the University of Delaware.
Her diary was published in 1984 and detailed her life during the years 1921 and 1926 to 1931 (“Alice Dunbar-Nelson”). As one of only two journals of 19th-ce
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 30, 2007
“Sister Josepha” by Alice Dunbar
The lead into the story sets a tone of boredom of a routine life. The author begins the story by showing us Sister Josepha in church doing what must have been part of her daily routine. This dullness is well represented in the text by using such verbs and adjectives as in this sentence “…hold her beads mechanically, her fingers numb with the accustomed exercise,” (407). Again, the author sets the tone of monotony with “always the same old work…” and “filling the same old lamps,” (407). The reader instantly notices how dull Sister Josepha feels that life in a convent is.
But Sister Josepha, the reader learns, is battling herself in her search for identity. She faces the decision of either living a mundane life as a nun or escaping into the world outside of the church that she knows hardly anything about. She finds herself torn between wanting excitement and freedom and wanting safety and security. The first glimpse of this we see is when a couple comes to the convent and wants to adopt her. Sister Josepha refuses to go with them because she thinks that the man looks at her in a vulgar way. “Untutored in worldly knowledge, she could not divine the meaning of the pronounced leers and admiration of her physical charms which gleamed in the man’s face, but she knew that it made her feel creepy, and stoutly refused to go,” (408). I took this to mean that although she is not highly educated she is smart enough to reject this couples’ offer because of the way the man looks at her. He looked at her in a sexual way. Why else would it make her feel creepy?
The author’s focus is on Sister Josepha’s identity. All she knows about herself is that her name is Camille and she is beautiful, but outside of that, she knows not much. That is why she stays at the convent after thinking about running away. At least at the convent she has an identity as “Sister Josepha” she is a nun. In the world outside, she would be nothing but a beautiful nameless object. She realizes this after overhearing Sister Francesca talking about her: “…how hard it would be for her in the world, with no name but Camille, no friends, and her beauty…” (411). I think Sister Josepha, as a character, was quite wise to chose staying with the mundane life where she knew what she could expect over the life beyond the convent’s walls. I expected her to runaway from the convent after she spotted the young military man and their eyes met. But found myself glad that she didn’t. After all routine and mundane can be a good thing.
The lead into the story sets a tone of boredom of a routine life. The author begins the story by showing us Sister Josepha in church doing what must have been part of her daily routine. This dullness is well represented in the text by using such verbs and adjectives as in this sentence “…hold her beads mechanically, her fingers numb with the accustomed exercise,” (407). Again, the author sets the tone of monotony with “always the same old work…” and “filling the same old lamps,” (407). The reader instantly notices how dull Sister Josepha feels that life in a convent is.
But Sister Josepha, the reader learns, is battling herself in her search for identity. She faces the decision of either living a mundane life as a nun or escaping into the world outside of the church that she knows hardly anything about. She finds herself torn between wanting excitement and freedom and wanting safety and security. The first glimpse of this we see is when a couple comes to the convent and wants to adopt her. Sister Josepha refuses to go with them because she thinks that the man looks at her in a vulgar way. “Untutored in worldly knowledge, she could not divine the meaning of the pronounced leers and admiration of her physical charms which gleamed in the man’s face, but she knew that it made her feel creepy, and stoutly refused to go,” (408). I took this to mean that although she is not highly educated she is smart enough to reject this couples’ offer because of the way the man looks at her. He looked at her in a sexual way. Why else would it make her feel creepy?
The author’s focus is on Sister Josepha’s identity. All she knows about herself is that her name is Camille and she is beautiful, but outside of that, she knows not much. That is why she stays at the convent after thinking about running away. At least at the convent she has an identity as “Sister Josepha” she is a nun. In the world outside, she would be nothing but a beautiful nameless object. She realizes this after overhearing Sister Francesca talking about her: “…how hard it would be for her in the world, with no name but Camille, no friends, and her beauty…” (411). I think Sister Josepha, as a character, was quite wise to chose staying with the mundane life where she knew what she could expect over the life beyond the convent’s walls. I expected her to runaway from the convent after she spotted the young military man and their eyes met. But found myself glad that she didn’t. After all routine and mundane can be a good thing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review