When teachers and students at Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School started digging into the history of a small corner of campus, they uncovered a connection to a remarkable Dayton story from the past.
Ellesse Dancy: Hi, my name is Ellesse Dancy, and I'm a senior at Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School. We recently discovered that some significant Dayton history happened in the northern part of our CJ campus. To find out more about this discovery, I interviewed Ariyah Morehead, a junior, and Eric Daniel, a senior. Eric?
Eric Daniel: Well, we discovered that the church where Paul Laurence Dunbar and his mother attended was on our campus.
Dancy: Who was Paul Laurence Dunbar?
Ariyah Morehead: Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the most influential African American poets of the late 19th century. He was a pioneering African American writer who authored over 400 poems, 12 poetry collections, four novels, four short story collections, and a Broadway musical, while addressing racial prejudice, the joys of life, and the African American experience in the post-emancipation era.
Daniel: Yes, Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the many historic figures that the Dayton community takes pride in as a hometown scholar. He was born on June 27, 1872, in Dayton, Ohio. His parents had been enslaved in Kentucky before his birth, with his father escaping to gain his freedom and later serving in the Union Army in Massachusetts. Although Dunbar grew up poor, his parents encouraged him to get a good education, and he started writing poetry as a child.
Dancy: Tell us more about his church.
Morehead: The Wayman AME Church congregation was founded in 1833 and is recognized as Dayton's first Black congregation. The same year that Dunbar was born, the AME Church decided to relocate their congregation to 86 Eaker Street, which is known as the Eaker Street AME Church.
Daniel: According to Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, the organization that oversees the museum at his house, Dunbar wrote his first poem, An Easter Ode, in 1878 and recited it at his first public reading at the Eaker Street AME Church in 1884, when he was just 12 years old.
Dancy: I took Mr. Mix's African American Studies class in the fall. I don't really remember us discussing this.
Daniel: Mr. Mix was looking up information on the Wayman AME Church. He came across the historical marker noting that a church stood on Eaker Street where Paul Laurence Dunbar attended. He went to the CJ historian, who found the 1918 Sanborn fire insurance map that showed where the church was located on the block. Comparing that map to a current property line map from Dayton confirmed that it was located where CJ's Founder Center is currently.
Morehead: Founder’s houses CJ Middle School and CJ Business Communications and the Alumni and Development Offices. It covers several property lots. 86 Eaker, where the church was, is the room where our Eagle Learning Center and our Study Hall and Tutor Center is currently located. This narrow but long room is also the entryway to our new CJ Middle School where Mrs. Lawford, the principal, has her desk.
Dancy: After discovering this in January, knowing Paul Laurence Dunbar's funeral was in February, did you guys do anything to commemorate it?
Daniel: Mr. Mix's African American Studies courses visited the site of his funeral in remembrance of a Dayton legend and to acknowledge all of Paul Laurence Dunbar's contributions during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.
Dancy: Wow, thank you guys so much for all the information. It is crazy to think that at one point our campus had the church attended by this pioneering African American writer from Dayton. There's a lot of history on Eaker—this short street between the north ends of our football stadium and tennis courts.
While CJ students are busy writing essays, it's pretty cool to know that one of Dayton's greatest writers may have once stood in the very same spot, sharing his own words with the world.
Special thanks to Brian Mix and Susan Marticello for helping bring this project to life. WYSO Youth Radio is made possible with support from the Ohio Arts Council and is produced right here at WYSO in The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices.
