|
3/20/97
Roberta J. Dunbar: Crusader for social justice
By KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer
For many black Americans in the early 1900s, the church was the focal
point of family and community. For Roberta J. Dunbar -- a visionary
social reformer -- it was also the guiding force behind more than 50
years of community service and fighting for the betterment of all.
Nearly a century ago, Dunbar championed the same causes still being
grappled with today: racial equality, women's rights, building strong
foundations for young people, and urban housing and development. Even
at a time when women were still fighting for the right to vote, Dunbar
worked around the barriers, identified the problems, then set about
addressing them.
Her strategies took many forms, but often she was an instigator who
helped create community groups and agencies to solve problems .
The roots of her impressive career in community service can be traced
to her involvement in Pond Street Baptist Church in Providence.
Dunbar was born in the Narragansett Pier neighborhood in the late
1800s to John D. and Louisa Cartwright Dunbar. As a youth, she joined
Second Freewill Baptist Church, the forerunner to Pond Street Baptist
Church, where her lifelong involvement included serving as clerk and
superintendent of the Sunday school.
"I had wonderful memories of her," said Fred Williamson, historian
and treasurer of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. "For a while,
she was my Sunday school teacher at Pond Street Church. She had a great
rapport with young people; she understood young people."
While historians and residents don't recall Dunbar ever marrying or
having children, her church teachings were so affecting that they drew
youngsters from outside the Baptist faith, including Williamson, who
was Episcopalian.
Having graduated from Providence schools, Dunbar was a staunch believer
in the importance of young people having access to recreational and
practical activities. In 1905, Dunbar and a group of men formed the
Marathon Club, which sponsored social and athletic events and provided
community service programs and scholarships for youths; the club still
exists.
Also, during the Depression, when doubt was cast on public funding
of youth programs, Dunbar provided an advocating voice, serving as the
state's director of the National Youth Administration.
Adequate housing was also among her concerns. In 1898, she helped
form the New Century Club, which established the Working Girls Home
on Cushing Street. It served young women who came to Providence to work
and could only find shelter in over-priced and unsanitary boarding houses.
Dunbar was also well-traveled in literary circles, and in 1891 she
joined with Mary E. Jackson and Brown University student John Hope (who
went on to become a noted scholar and college president) to form the
Enquirers, a literary club. The club's 15 members wore rings bearing
a question mark, symbolizing intellectual curiousity, and routinely
met in their homes to discuss poetry, mainstream literature and race
relations.
She was equally comfortable in political circles, advocating for social
justice for people of color and women.
Dunbar was a member of the Rhode Island Council of Women and made
speeches for its interracial speakers bureau. She was a member for over
40 years, and a one-time president, of the Julia Ward Howe Republican
Association.
In 1939, her "commitment to social improvement" led her to join other
community leaders in founding the John Hope Community Association, now
the John Hope Settlement House. The association's founding mission was
to provide "civil, cultural and recreational" activities to all ages.
Dunbar was founding secretary of the Providence NAACP and was an ardent
supporter of the concept that local history needed to be preserved --
especially the contributions made by black Americans. She kept her own
writings, biography and historical documents, some of which can be found
in the archives of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society.
"She was passionate about history. She used to have boxes and boxes
of papers and documents," said Deborah McCrea, a church historian whose
mother was friends with Dunbar. "I used to bug her, as a kid, to let
me have some of the historical documents . . . She was a lady I really
liked and admired."
Dunbar died in 1956, without seeing the changes and social improvements
for which she had spent a lifetime advocating.
More Women in R.I. history
|
lack
Women: Then and Now
