I Know Why the Caged Bird Beats His Wings, Bisa Butler

1896: Paul Laurence Dunbar, whom Booker T. Washington will hail as the “poet laureate of the Negro race,” publishes the collection Lyrics of a Lowly Life, which contains some of his best and most famous verse. By the time of his death in 1906, at the age of 33, he will have written twelve volumes of poetry, four novels, four collections of short stories and plays, and dozens of essays and songs. The artist has included lines from his poem “Sympathy” around the borders of her quilt.