Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875 – 1935) used her poetry, essays, and short stories to confront complex issues of being a multiracial woman in America. “Brass Ankles Speaks” is an undated essay she wrote (presumably sometime in the early 1900s) on the subject. It was never published during her lifetime. 

Active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dunbar-Nelson grappled with the feeling of non-belonging to one racial community nor the other. 

Despite her personal  struggles, she devoted her life to fighting for social and racial justice and women’s equality not only through her writing, but as an activist and speaker.  Read More→