Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...

, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is ''

Their Eyes Were Watching God ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance, and Hurston's best known work. The novel explores main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a v ...

'', published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to

Eatonville, Florida Eatonville is a town in Orange County, Florida, United States, six miles north of Orlando. It is part of the Orlando– Kissimmee metropolitan statistical area. Incorporated on August 15, 1887, it was one of the first self-governing all-black ...

, in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research while a student at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity. She also wrote fiction about contemporary issues in the Black community and became a central figure of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as '' The New Negro'' and ''

Fire!! ''Fire!!'' was an African-American literary magazine published in New York City in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was started by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John P. Davis, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gw ...

'' After moving back to Florida, Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore in North Florida, '' Mules and Men'' (1935), and her first three novels: '' Jonah's Gourd Vine'' (1934); ''

'' (1937); and ''

Moses, Man of the Mountain ''Moses, Man of the Mountain'' is a 1939 novel by African-American novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The novel rewrites the story of the Book of Exodus of Moses and the Israelites from an Afro-American perspective.The novel applies ...

'' (1939). Also published during this time was ''Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica'' (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti. Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades. Interest was revived in 1975 after author Alice Walker published an article,
In Search of Zora Neale Hurston
(later retitled “Looking for Zora”), in the March issue of ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'' magazine that year. Hurston's manuscript ''Every Tongue Got to Confess'', a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published posthumously in 2001 after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book '' Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"'', about the life of

Cudjoe Lewis Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis ( – July 17, 1935), born Oluale Kossola, and also known as Cudjo Lewis, was the third to last adult survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. Together with 115 other African captives, he was ...

(Kossola), was published posthumously in 2018.

Biography

Early life and education

Hurston was the fifth of eight children of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston (''née'' Potts). All of her four grandparents had been born into slavery. Her father was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

preacher and

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

, who later became a carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891, where her father grew up and her paternal grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church. When she was three, her family moved to

. In 1887, it was one of the first all-

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

towns incorporated in the United States. Hurston said that Eatonville was "home" to her, as she was so young when she moved there. Sometimes she claimed it as her birthplace. A few years later, her father was elected as mayor of the town in 1897. In 1902 he was called to serve as minister of its largest church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist. As an adult, Hurston often used Eatonville as a setting in her stories—it was a place where African Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society. In 1901, some northern schoolteachers had visited Eatonville and given Hurston several books that opened her mind to literature. She later described this personal literary awakening as a kind of "birth". Hurston lived for the rest of her childhood in Eatonville and described the experience of growing up there in her 1928 essay, " How It Feels To Be Colored Me". Eatonville now holds an annual "Zora! Festival" in her honor. Hurston's mother died in 1904, and her father subsequently married Mattie Moge in 1905. This was considered scandalous, as it was rumored that he had had sexual relations with Moge before his first wife's death. Hurston's father and stepmother sent her to a Baptist boarding school in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

. They eventually stopped paying her tuition and she was dismissed.

Work and study

In 1916, Hurston was employed as a maid by the lead singer of the Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical company.About Zora Neale Hurston
, Zora Neale Hurston official website, maintained by the Zora Neale Hurston Estate and Harper Collins. In 1917, she resumed her formal education, attending Morgan College, the high school division of

Morgan State University Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In 1867, the university, then known a ...

, a

historically black college Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. At this time, apparently to qualify for a free high-school education, the 26-year-old Hurston began claiming 1901 as her year of birth. She graduated from the high school of Morgan State University in 1918.

College and slightly after

When she was in college, she was introduced to viewing life through an anthropological lens away from Eatonville. One of her main goals was to prove similarities between ethnicities. In 1918, Hurston began her studies at Howard University, a

in Washington, DC. She was one of the earliest initiates of

Zeta Phi Beta Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. In 1920, five women from Howard University envisioned a sorority that would raise the consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of scholastic ach ...

sorority, founded by and for black women, and co-founded '' The Hilltop'', the university's student newspaper. She took courses in Spanish, English, Greek, and public speaking and earned an associate degree in 1920. In 1921, she wrote a short story, "John Redding Goes to Sea", which qualified her to become a member of Alain Locke's literary club, The Stylus. Hurston left Howard in 1924, and in 1925 was offered a scholarship by Barnard trustee Annie Nathan Meyer to

, a women's college, where she was the sole black student. While she was at Barnard, she conducted

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

research with noted anthropologist

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

of Columbia University, and later studied with him as a graduate student. She also worked with Ruth Benedict and fellow anthropology student

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...

. Hurston received her B.A. in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

in 1928, when she was 37. Hurston had met

Charlotte Osgood Mason Charlotte Osgood Mason, born Charlotte Louise Van der Veer Quick (May 18, 1854, Franklin Park, New Jersey – April 15, 1946, New York City), was an American socialite and philanthropist. She contributed more than $100,000 to a number of African-A ...

, a philanthropist and literary patron, who became interested in her work and career. She had supported other African-American authors, such as

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, H ...

and Alain Locke, who had recommended Hurston to her. But she also tried to direct their work. Mason supported Hurston's travel to the South for research from 1927 to 1932, with a stipend of $200 per month. In return, she wanted Hurston to give her all the material she collected about Negro music, folklore, literature, hoodoo, and other forms of culture. At the same time, Hurston had to try to satisfy Boas as her academic adviser. Boas was a cultural relativist and wanted to overturn ideas ranking cultures in a hierarchy of values. After graduating from Barnard, Hurston studied for two years as a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University, working further with Boas during this period.. Living in Harlem in the 1920s, Hurston had befriended poets Langston Hughes and

Countee Cullen Countee Cullen (born Countee LeRoy Porter; May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Childhood Countee LeRoy Porter ...

, among several other writers. Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings. Around this time, Hurston also had a few early literary successes, including placing in short-story and playwriting contests in '' Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life,'' published by the National Urban League.

Marriages

In 1927, Hurston married Herbert Sheen, a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

musician and a former teacher at Howard; he later became a physician. Their marriage ended in 1931. In 1935, Hurston was involved with Percy Punter, a graduate student at Columbia University. He inspired the character of Tea Cake in ''

''. In 1939, while Hurston was working for the WPA in Florida, she married Albert Price. The marriage ended after a few months, but they did not divorce until 1943. The following year, Hurston married James Howell Pitts of Cleveland. That marriage, too, lasted less than a year. Hurston twice lived in a cottage in Eau Gallie, Florida: in 1929 and again in 1951.

Patron support

When foundation grants ended during the Great Depression, Hurston and her friend Langston Hughes both relied on the patronage of philanthropist

, a white literary patron.Horner, Shirley
"About Books"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 16, 1986. Accessed March 5, 2011. "For many years, Hughes enjoyed the patronage of "an aged, well-preserved white dowager of enormous wealth and influence", Charlotte Mason..." and "Dr. avid LeveringLewis said that his research 'points out that, thanks to Mrs. Mason's generosity, Hughes lived in the early 1930s in a one-family house in Westfield, where his neighbor was another of Harlem's luminaries, Zora Neale Hurston.'" During the 1930s, Hurston was a resident of

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a Town (New Jersey), town in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,

Academic institutions

In 1934, Hurston established a school of dramatic arts "based on pure Negro expression" at Bethune-Cookman University (at the time, Bethune-Cookman College), a historically black college in

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

. In 1956 Hurston received the Bethune-Cookman College Award for Education and Human Relations in recognition of her achievements. The English Department at Bethune-Cookman College remains dedicated to preserving her cultural legacy. In later life, in addition to continuing her literary career, Hurston served on the faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes (now

North Carolina Central University North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds fro ...

) in Durham.

Anthropological and folkloric fieldwork

Hurston traveled extensively in the Caribbean and the American South and immersed herself in local cultural practices to conduct her anthropological research. Based on her work in the South, sponsored from 1928 to 1932 by

, a wealthy philanthropist, Hurston wrote '' Mules and Men'' in 1935. She was researching lumber camps in north Florida and commented on the practice of white men in power taking black women as

concubines Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

, including having them bear children. This practice later was referred to as " paramour rights", based on the men's power under

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Intern ...

and related to practices during slavery times. The book also includes much folklore. Hurston drew from this material as well in the fictional treatment she developed for her novels such as ''Jonah's Gourd Vine'' (1934). In 1935, Hurston traveled to Georgia and Florida with

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

and

Mary Elizabeth Barnicle Mary Elizabeth (Barnicle) Cadle (April 17, 1891 - November 26, 1978) was an American folklorist, Medieval English literature professor, and activist interested in women's and African-American rights, suffrage, and the labor movement. She collect ...

for research on African American song traditions and their relationship to slave and African antecedent music. She was tasked with selecting the geographic areas and contacting the research subjects. Zora Neale Hurston NYWTS

In 1936 and 1937, Hurston traveled to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

and

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

for research, with support from the Guggenheim Foundation. She drew from this research for ''Tell My Horse'' (1938), a genre-defying book that mixes anthropology, folklore, and personal narrative. In 1938 and 1939, Hurston worked for the Federal Writer's Project (FWP), part of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. Hired for her experience as a writer and folklorist, she gathered information to add to Florida's historical and cultural collection. From October 1947 to February 1948, Hurston lived in Honduras, in the north coastal town of

Puerto Cortés Puerto Cortés, originally known as Puerto de Caballos, is a port city and municipality on the north Caribbean coast of Honduras, right on the Laguna de Alvarado, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, with a natural bay. The present city ...

. She had some hopes of locating either Mayan ruins or vestiges of an as yet undiscovered civilization. While in Puerto Cortés, she wrote much of ''Seraph on the Suwanee'', set in Florida. Hurston expressed interest in the polyethnic nature of the population in the region (many, such as the Miskito Zambu and

Garifuna The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Cr ...

, were of partial African ancestry and had developed creole cultures). During her last decade, Hurston worked as a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. In the fall of 1952, she was contacted by Sam Nunn, editor of the '' Pittsburgh Courier,'' to go to Florida to cover the murder trial of

Ruby McCollum Ruby McCollum, born Ruby Jackson (August 31, 1909 – May 23, 1992), was a wealthy married African-American woman in Live Oak, Florida, who is known for being arrested and convicted in 1952 for killing Dr. C. Leroy Adams, a prominent white doctor a ...

. McCollum was charged with murdering the white Dr. C. Leroy Adams, who was also a politician. McCollum said he had forced her to have sex and bear his child.Dr. C. Arthur Ellis, Jr
"New Florida-based Movie on Ruby McCollum Story Underscores Need for Black History Month"
, PR Web, January 5, 2011, accessed March 18, 2014, Hurston recalled what she had seen of white male sexual dominance in the lumber camps in North Florida, and discussed it with Nunn. They both thought the case might be about such "paramour rights", and wanted to "expose it to a national audience". Upon reaching Live Oak, Hurston was surprised not only by the gag order the judge in the trial placed on the defense but by her inability to get residents in town to talk about the case; both blacks and whites were silent. She believed that might have been related to Dr. Adams' alleged involvement in the gambling operation of Ruby's husband Sam McCollum. Her articles were published by the newspaper during the trial. Ruby McCollum was convicted by an all-male, all-white jury, and sentenced to death. Hurston had a special assignment to write a serialized account, ''The Life Story of Ruby McCollum'', over three months in 1953 in the newspaper. Her part was ended abruptly when she and Nunn disagreed about her pay, and she left. Unable to pay independently to return for the appeal and second trial, Hurston contacted journalist

William Bradford Huie William Bradford Huie (November 13, 1910 – November 20, 1986) was an American writer, investigative reporter, editor, national lecturer, and television host. His credits include twenty-one books that sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In ad ...

, with whom she had worked at ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

'', to try to interest him in the case. He covered the appeal and second trial, and also developed material from a background investigation. Hurston shared her material with him from the first trial, but he acknowledged her only briefly in his book, ''Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail'' (1956), which became a bestseller.Elizabeth Boyd, "Disquiet", Review of Tammy Evans, ''The Silencing of Ruby McCollum: Race, Class, and Gender in the South''
, H-Net Review, July 2008, accessed March 18, 2014, Hurston celebrated that

"McCollum's testimony in her own defense marked the first time that a woman of African-American descent was allowed to testify as to the paternity of her child by a white man. Hurston firmly believed that Ruby McCollum's testimony sounded the death toll of 'paramour rights' in the Segregationist South."

Among other positions, Hurston later worked at the

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...

Technical Library at

Patrick Air Force Base Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

in 1957. She was fired for being "too well-educated" for her job. She moved to Fort Pierce, Florida. Taking jobs where she could find them, Hurston worked occasionally as a substitute teacher. At age 60, Hurston had to fight "to make ends meet" with the help of public assistance. At one point she worked as a maid on Miami Beach's Rivo Alto Island.

Death

During a period of financial and medical difficulties, Hurston was forced to enter St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where she suffered a stroke. She died of hypertensive heart disease on January 28, 1960, and was buried at the Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce, Florida. Her remains were in an unmarked grave until 1973. Novelist Alice Walker and fellow Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt found an unmarked grave in the general area where Hurston had been buried; they decided to mark it as hers. Walker commissioned a gray marker inscribed with "ZORA NEALE HURSTON / ''A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH'' / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960." The line "a genius of the south" is from Jean Toomer's poem, ''Georgia Dusk,'' which appears in his book ''

Cane Cane or caning may refer to: *Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking * Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance *White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are ...

''. Hurston was born in 1891, not 1901. After Hurston died, her papers were ordered to be burned. A law officer and friend, Patrick DuVal, passing by the house where she had lived, stopped and put out the fire, thus saving an invaluable collection of literary documents for posterity. The nucleus of this collection was given to the University of Florida libraries in 1961 by Mrs. Marjorie Silver, a friend, and neighbor of Hurston. Other materials were donated in 1970 and 1971 by Frances Grover, daughter of E. O. Grover, a Rollins College professor and long-time friend of Hurston's. In 1979, Stetson Kennedy of Jacksonville, who knew Hurston through his work with the Federal Writers Project, added additional papers (Zora Neale Hurston Papers, University of Florida Smathers Libraries, August 2008).

Literary career

1920s: The Harlem Renaissance

When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the

was at its

zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. Shortly before she entered Barnard, Hurston's short story "Spunk" was selected for '' The New Negro'', a landmark anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays focusing on African and African-American art and literature. In 1926, a group of young black writers including Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Thurman, calling themselves the

Niggerati The Niggerati was the name used, with deliberate irony, by Wallace Thurman for the group of young African-American artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. "Niggerati" is a portmanteau of "nigger" and " literati". The rooming house ...

, produced a literary magazine called ''

'' that featured many of the young artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1927, Hurston traveled to the Deep South to collect African-American folk tales. She also interviewed Cudjoe Kazzola Lewis, of Africatown, Alabama, who was the last known survivor of the enslaved Africans carried aboard '' Clotilda'', an illegal slave ship that had entered the US in 1860, and thus the last known person to have been transported in the Transatlantic slave trade. The next year she published the article "Cudjoe's Own Story of the Last African Slaver" (1928). According to her biographer Robert E. Hemenway, this piece largely plagiarized the work of Emma Langdon Roche, an Alabama writer who wrote about Lewis in a 1914 book. Hurston did add new information about daily life in Lewis' home village of

Bantè Bantè is a town, arrondissement, and commune in western Benin. It is located in the former Zou Province of which since 1999 is part of the Collines Department. The commune covers an area of 2695 square kilometres and as of 2013 had a population of ...

. Hurston intended to publish a collection of several hundred folk tales from her field studies in the South. She wanted to have them be as close to the original as possible but struggled to balance the expectations of her academic adviser, Franz Boas, and her patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. This manuscript was not published at the time. A copy was later found at the Smithsonian archives among the papers of anthropologist

William Duncan Strong William Duncan Strong (1899–1962) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America. Early life and education Strong was bor ...

, a friend of Boas. Hurston's ''Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States'' was published posthumously in 2001 as ''Every Tongue Got to Confess.'' In 1928, Hurston returned to Alabama with additional resources; she conducted more interviews with Lewis, took photographs of him and others in the community, and recorded the only known film footage of him – an African who had been trafficked to the United States through the slave trade. Based on this material, she wrote a manuscript, '' Barracoon'', completing it in 1931. Hemenway described it as "a highly dramatic, semifictionalized narrative intended for the popular reader."Diouf, Sylviane A. (Sylviane Anna). (2007) ''Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilde and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America.'' New York: Oxford University Press
p. 225
It has also been described as a "testimonial text", more in the style of other anthropological studies since the late 20th century. After this round of interviews, Hurston's literary patron, philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, learned of Lewis and began to send him money for his support. Lewis was also interviewed by journalists for local and national publications. Hurston's manuscript ''Barracoon'' was eventually published posthumously on May 8, 2018. " Barracoon", or

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

in Spanish, is where captured Africans were temporarily imprisoned before being shipped abroad. In 1929, Hurston moved to Eau Gallie, Florida, where she wrote '' Mules and Men.'' It was published in 1935.

1930s

By the mid-1930s, Hurston had published several short stories and the critically acclaimed ''Mules and Men'' (1935), a groundbreaking work of "literary anthropology" documenting African-American

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

from timber camps in North Florida. In 1930, she collaborated with Langston Hughes on '' Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life'', a play that they never staged. Their collaboration caused their friendship to fall apart. The play was first staged in 1991. Hurston adapted her anthropological work for the performing arts. Her folk revue, ''The Great Day,'' featured authentic African song and dance, and premiered at the John Golden Theatre in New York in January 1932. Despite positive reviews, it had only one performance. The Broadway debut left Hurston in $600 worth of debt. No producers wanted to move forward with a full run of the show. During the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston produced two other musical revues, ''From Sun to Sun,'' which was a revised adaptation of ''The Great Day,'' and ''Singing Steel.'' Hurston had a strong belief that folklore should be dramatized. Hurston's first three novels were published in the 1930s: ''Jonah's Gourd Vine'' (1934); ''

'' (1937), written during her fieldwork in Haiti and considered her masterwork; and ''

'' (1939). In 1937, Hurston was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

to conduct ethnographic research in Jamaica and Haiti. ''Tell My Horse'' (1938) documents her account of her fieldwork studying spiritual and cultural rituals in Jamaica and vodoun in Haiti.

1940s and 1950s

In the 1940s, Hurston's work was published in such periodicals as ''

'' and ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

''. Her last published novel, '' Seraph on the Suwanee'', notable principally for its focus on white characters, was published in 1948. It explores images of " white trash" women. Jackson (2000) argues that Hurston's meditation on abjection, waste, and the construction of class and gender identities among poor whites reflects the

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

discourses of the 1920s. In 1952, Hurston was assigned by the ''Pittsburgh Courier'' to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local

bolita Bolita (Spanish for ''Little Ball'') is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbe ...

racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. She also contributed to ''Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail'' (1956), a book by journalist and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

advocate William Bradford Huie.

Posthumous publications

Hurston's manuscript ''Every Tongue Got to Confess'' (2001), a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published posthumously after being discovered in Smithsonian archives. In 2008,

The Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ran ...

selected excerpts from ''Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail'' (1956), to which Hurston had contributed, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American true crime writing. Hurston's nonfiction book '' Barracoon'' was published in 2018. A barracoon is a type of

where slaves were imprisoned before being taken overseas.

Spiritual views

In Chapter XV of ''

Dust Tracks on a Road ''Dust Tracks on a Road'' is the 1942 autobiography of black American writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Contents It begins with Hurston's childhood in the black community of Eatonville, Florida, then covers her education at Howard Un ...

'', entitled "Religion", Hurston expressed disbelief in and disdain for both theism and religious belief. She states:

Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws.

However, though clearly rejecting the

beliefs of her preacher father, her

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape ...

is a little more complex than mere atheism. She investigates voodoo, going so far as to participate in such rituals, and again in her original uncensored notes for her autobiography shares her admiration for Biblical characters like

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

: "He was a man after God's own heart, and was quite servicable in helping God get rid of no-count rascals who were cluttering up the place."

Public obscurity

Hurston's work slid into obscurity for decades, for both cultural and political reasons. The use of

African-American dialect African-American English (or AAE; also known as Black American English, or Black English in American linguistics) is the set of English sociolects spoken by most Black people in the United States and many in Canada; most commonly, it refers ...

, as featured in Hurston's novels, became less popular. Younger writers felt that it was demeaning to use such dialect, given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature. Also, Hurston had made stylistic choices in dialogue influenced by her academic studies. Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period, which she had documented through ethnographic research. Several of Hurston's literary contemporaries criticized her use of dialect, saying that it was a caricature of African-American culture and was rooted in a post-Civil War, white racist tradition. These writers, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, criticized Hurston's later work as not advancing the movement.

Richard Wright Richard Wright may refer to: Arts * Richard Wright (author) (1908–1960), African-American novelist * Richard B. Wright (1937–2017), Canadian novelist * Richard Wright (painter) (1735–1775), marine painter * Richard Wright (artist) (born 19 ...

, in his review of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God,'' said: But since the late 20th century, there has been a revival of interest in Hurston. Critics have since praised her skillful use of idiomatic speech. During the 1930s and 1940s, when her work was published, the pre-eminent African-American author was Richard Wright, a former Communist. Unlike Hurston, Wright wrote in explicitly political terms. He had become disenchanted with Communism, but he used the struggle of African Americans for respect and economic advancement as both the setting and the motivation for his work. Other popular African-American authors of the time, such as

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collec ...

, dealt with the same concerns as Wright albeit in ways more influenced by Modernism. Hurston, who at times evinced conservative attitudes, was on the other side of the disputes over the promise of leftist politics for African-Americans. In 1951, for example, Hurston argued that

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

economic support had created a harmful dependency by African Americans on the government and that this dependency ceded too much power to politicians. Despite increasing difficulties, Hurston maintained her independence and a determined optimism. She wrote in a 1957 letter:

But ... I have made phenomenal growth as a creative artist. ... I am not materialistic ... If I do happen to die without money, somebody will bury me, though I do not wish it to be that way.

Posthumous recognition

* Zora Neale Hurston's hometown of

, celebrates her life annually in Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. It is home to the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts, and a library named for her opened in January 2004. * The Zora Neale Hurston House in Fort Pierce has been designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

. The city celebrates Hurston annually through various events such as ''Hattitudes'', birthday parties, and the several-day event at the end of April known as Zora! Festival. * Author Alice Walker sought to identify Hurston's unmarked grave in 1973. She installed a grave marker inscribed with "A Genius of the South". * Alice Walker published "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in the March 1975 issue of ''

'' magazine, reviving interest in Hurston's work. * In 1991, '' Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life'', a 1930 play by

and Hurston, was first staged; it was staged in New York City by the Lincoln Center Theater. * In 1994, Hurston was inducted into the

National Women's Hall of Fame The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees. Induc ...

. * In 2002, scholar

Molefi Kete Asante Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor ...

listed Zora Neale Hurston on his list of

100 Greatest African Americans ''100 Greatest African Americans'' is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans (in alphabetical order; that is, they are not ranked), as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A s ...

. *

dedicated its 2003 Virginia C. Gildersleeve Conference to Hurston. '' 'Jumpin' at the Sun': Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston'' focused on her work and influence. Alice Walker's Gildersleeve lecture detailed her work on discovering and publicizing Hurston's legacy. * The Zora Neale Hurston Award was established in 2008; it is awarded to an

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

member who has "demonstrated leadership in promoting African American literature". * Hurston was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the

New York Writers Hall of Fame The New York State Writers Hall of Fame or NYS Writers Hall of Fame is a project established in 2010 by the Empire State Center for the Book, which is the New York State affiliate of the U.S. Library of Congress's Center for the Book, and the Em ...

in 2010. * The novel ''Harlem Mosaics'' (2012) by Whit Frazier depicts the friendship between

and Hurston and tells the story of how their friendship fell apart during their collaboration on the 1930 play '' Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life''. * On January 7, 2014, the 123rd anniversary of Hurston's birthday was commemorated by a Google Doodle. * She was one of twelve inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame on June 8, 2015. * An excerpt from her autobiography ''

'' was recited in the documentary film ''August 28: A Day in the Life of a People'', directed by Ava DuVernay, which debuted at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016. * Hurston was honored in a play written and performed by students at

Indian River Charter High School Indian River Charter High School (IRCHS) is a co-educational public charter high school in Vero Beach, Florida. The school operates under charter from the Indian River County School District. Location The school is located near the Mueller Cam ...

in October 2017, January 2018, and January 2019. The play was based on letters written between Hurston and Vero Beach entrepreneur, architect and pioneer,

Waldo E. Sexton Waldo Emmerson Sexton (23 March 1885 – 28 December 1967) was an entrepreneur whose enterprises have attracted visitors to Vero Beach, Florida, since the 1930s and remain of value to the community, industry, tourists, artists, historians and ho ...

Political views

Hurston was a Republican who aligned herself with the politics of the Old Right and was a supporter of

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

. Although she once stated her support for the "complete repeal of All Jim Crow Laws", she was a contrarian on civil rights activism and generally lacked interest in being associated with it. In 1951, she criticized the New Deal and argued that it had created a harmful dependency by African Americans on the government and that this dependency ceded too much power to politicians. She criticized communism in her 1951 essay titled ''Why the Negro won't Buy Communism'' and accused communists of exploiting African-Americans for their own personal gain. In her 1938 review of Richard Wright's short-story collection ''Uncle Tom's Children'', she criticized his communist beliefs and the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...

for supporting "state responsibility for everything and individual responsibility for nothing, not even feeding one's self". Her views on communism, the New Deal, civil rights, and other topics contrasted with many of her colleagues in the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes, who was in the 1930s a supporter of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and praised it in several of his poems. John McWhorter has called Hurston a conservative, proclaiming her as "America's favorite black conservative". McWhorter, John
"Thus Spake Zora"
''City Journal'', Summer 2009. McWhorter, John (January 4, 2011
Why Zora Neale Hurston Was a Conservative
, '' The Root'' David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito have argued that she can be characterized as a

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

, comparing her to

Rose Wilder Lane Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel P ...

and

Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...

, two female libertarian novelists who were her contemporaries and are known as the "founding mothers" of American libertarianism. David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito
"Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty"
''Independent Review'' 12, Spring 2008. The libertarian magazine ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

'' praised her, claiming: "What Hurston wanted, in both life and literature, was for everyone, of every race, for better or worse, to be viewed as an individual first." In response to Black writers criticizing her novel ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' for not exploring racial themes, she stated: "I am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones". She criticized what she described as "Race Pride and Race Consciousness", describing it as a "thing to be abhorred", stating: Although her personal quotes show disbelief of religion, Hurston did not negate spiritual matters as evidenced from her 1942 autobiography ''

'': In 1952, Hurston supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert A. Taft. Like Taft, Hurston was against Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies. She also shared his opposition to Roosevelt and Truman's interventionist foreign policy. In the original draft of her autobiography, ''Dust Tracks on a Road'', Hurston compared the United States government to a "fence" in stolen goods and a Mafia-like a protection racket. Hurston thought it ironic that the same "people who claim that it is a noble thing to die for freedom and democracy… wax frothy if anyone points out the inconsistency of their morals… We, too, consider machine gun bullets good laxatives for heathens who get constipated with toxic ideas about a country of their own." She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad but denied it to people in their home countries: Roosevelt "can call names across an ocean" for his

Four Freedoms The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freed ...

, but he did not have "the courage to speak even softly at home.""Seeing the World As It Is," a chapter deleted at the insistence of the original publishers of Hurston's memoir ''Dust Tracks on a Road'', but later included in the Library of America edition edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. When Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Japan she called him "the Butcher of Asia". Hurston opposed the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

ruling in the '' Brown v. Board of Education'' case of 1954. She felt that if separate schools were truly equal (and she believed that they were rapidly becoming so), educating black students in physical proximity to white students would not result in better education. Also, she worried about the demise of black schools and black teachers as a way to pass on the cultural tradition to future generations of African Americans. She voiced this opposition in a letter, "Court Order Can't Make the Races Mix", that was published in the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' in August 1955. Hurston had not reversed her long-time opposition to segregation. Rather, she feared that the Court's ruling could become a precedent for an all-powerful federal government to undermine individual liberty on a broad range of issues in the future. Hurston also opposed preferential treatment for African-Americans, saying:

Criticism

Thoughts on integration

Darwin Turner, an English professor, and specialist in African-American literature faulted Hurston in 1971 for opposing integration and for opposing programs to guarantee blacks the right to work. Even though criticized, Hurston appeared to oppose integration based on pride and her sense of independence. She would not "bow low before the white man", and claimed "adequate Negro schools" already existed in 1955. Hurston is described as a "trailblazer for black women's empowerment" because of her numerous individual achievements and her strong belief that black women could be "self-made". However, a common criticism of her work is that the vagueness of her racial politics in her writing, particularly about black feminism, makes her "a prime candidate for white intellectual idolatry."

Research and representation

Other authors criticized Hurston for her sensationalist representation of voodoo. In ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'' magazine in 1943,

Harold Preece Harold Richard Preece (January 16, 1906 – November 24, 1992) was an American writer notable for his early involvement in civil rights, his status as an authority in American folklore and Western histories, and his friendship with Robert E. How ...

criticized Hurston for her perpetuation of "Negro primitivism" in order to advance her own literary career. The '' Journal of Negro History'' complained that her work on voodoo was an indictment of African-American ignorance and superstition. Jeffrey Anderson states that Hurston's research methods were questionable and that she fabricated material for her works on voodoo. He observed that she admitted to inventing dialogue for her book ''Mules and Men'' in a letter to Ruth Benedict and described fabricating the ''Mules and Men'' story of rival voodoo doctors as a child in her later autobiography. Anderson believes that many of Hurston's other claims in her voodoo writings are dubious as well. Several authors have contended that Hurston engaged in significant plagiarism in at least three works, claiming the article "Cudjo's own story of the last African slaver" was only 25% original, the rest being plagiarized, and that she also plagiarized much of her work on voodoo.

Selected bibliography

* "Journey's End" ('' Negro World'', 1922), poetry * "Night" (''Negro World'', 1922), poetry * "Passion" (''Negro World'', 1922), poetry * ''

Color Struck ''Color Struck'' is a play by Zora Neale Hurston. It was originally published in 1926 in '' Fire!!'' magazine. ''Color Struck'' won second prize in Opportunity Magazine's literary contest for best play. ''Color Struck'' was not staged during th ...

'' ('' Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life'', 1925), play * Muttsy (Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life) 1926, short story. * " Sweat" (1926), short story * " How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928), essay * "Hoodoo in America" (1931) in '' The Journal of American Folklore'' * " The Gilded Six-Bits" (1933), short story * '' Jonah's Gourd Vine'' (1934), novel * '' Mules and Men'' (1935), non-fiction * ''

'' (1937), novel * ''

Tell My Horse Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four no ...

'' (1938), non-fiction * ''

'' (1939), novel * ''

'' (1942), autobiography * '' Seraph on the Suwanee'' (1948), novel * "What White Publishers Won't Print" ('' Negro Digest'', 1950) * '' I Love Myself When I Am Laughing… and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader'' ( Alice Walker, ed.; 1979) * '' The Sanctified Church'' (1981) * ''Spunk: Selected Stories'' (1985) * '' Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life'' (play, with

; edited with introductions by George Houston Bass and

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Amer ...

; 1991) * '' The Complete Stories'' (introduction by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sieglinde Lemke; 1995) * '' Novels & Stories: Jonah's Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Seraph on the Suwanee, Selected Stories'' (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.;

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ran ...

, 1995) * '' Folklore, Memoirs, & Other Writings: Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles'' (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.; Library of America, 1995) * '' Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States'' (2001) * '' Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters'', collected and edited by Carla Kaplan (2003) * ''Collected Plays'' (2008) * '' Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"'' (2018) * '' Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance'' (2020)

Film, television, and radio

* In 1935 and 1936, Zora Neale Hurston shot documentary footage as part of her fieldwork in Florida and Haiti. Included are rare ethnographic evidence of the Hoodoo and Vodou religion in the U.S. and Haiti. * In 1989, PBS aired a drama based on Hurston's life entitled ''Zora is My Name!'' * The 1992–95 PBS children's television series '' Ghostwriter'', which had an emphasis on reading and writing skills, featured the lead characters attending the fictitious Zora Neale Hurston Middle School in the Fort Greene neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. * The 2004 film '' Brother to Brother'', set in part during the Harlem Renaissance, featured Hurston (portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis). * '' Their Eyes Were Watching God'' was adapted for a 2005 film of the same title by

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...

's Harpo Productions, with a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks. The film starred

Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mi ...

as Janie Starks. * On April 9, 2008, PBS broadcast a 90-minute documentary, ''Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun'', written and produced by filmmaker Kristy Andersen, as part of the '' American Masters'' series. * In 2009, Hurston was featured in a 90-minute documentary about the WPA Writers' Project titled ''Soul of a People: Writing America's Story'', which premiered on the Smithsonian Channel. Her work in Florida during the 1930s is highlighted in the companion book, ''Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America''. * In 2017,

Jackie Kay Jacqueline Margaret Kay, (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her works ''Other Lovers'' (1993), ''Trumpet'' (1998) and ''Red Dust Road'' (2011). Kay has won many awards, including the Guardian Fictio ...

presented a 30-minute

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

documentary about Hurston called ''A Woman Half in Shadow'', first broadcast on April 17, and subsequently available as a podcast. * Rozonda Thomas plays Hurston in the 2017 film '' Marshall''.

References

Notes

Citations

* 28th Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. ZORA! Festival. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, 2017. Web. 10 April 2017. * Abcarian, Richard, and Marvin Klotz. "Zora Neale Hurston." In ''Literature: The Human Experience'', 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006, pp. 1562–63. * Anderson, Christa S. "African American Women." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, 2005. Web. 9 April 2017. * Baym, Nina (ed.), "Zora Neale Hurston." In ''The Norton Anthology of American Literature'', 6th edition, Vol. D. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 2003, pp. 1506–07. * Beito, David T. "Zora Neale Hurston," American Enterprise 6 (September/October 1995), pp. 61–3. * Beito, David T. and Beito, Linda Royster,
Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty
. ''Independent Review'' 12 (Spring 2008). * Boyd, Valerie (2003). ''Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston''. New York: Scribner. . * Ellis, C. Arthur. ''Zora Hurston And The Strange Case Of Ruby McCollum'', 1st edition. Lutz, FL: Gadfly Publishing, 2009. * Estate of Zora Neale Hurston. "Zora Neale Hurston." The Official Website of Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston Trust, 2015. Web. 11 April 2017. * Flynn, Elisabeth, Caitlin Deasy, and Rachel Ruah. "The Upbringing and Education of Zora Neale Hurston." Project Mosaic: Hurston. Rollins College, 11 July 2011. Web. 11 April 2017. * Harrison, Beth. "Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Austin: A Case Study in Ethnography, Literary Modernism, and Contemporary Ethnic Fiction. MELUS. 21.2 (1996) 89–106. . * Hemenway, Robert E. ''Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography''. Urbana:

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...

, 1977. . * Hemenway, Robert E. "Zora Neale Hurston." In Paul Lauter and Richard Yarborough (eds.), ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature'', 5th edition, Vol. D. New York:

Houghton Mifflin Co. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

, 2006, pp. 1577–78. * Jones, Sharon L. ''A Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work'' (New York: Facts on File, 2009). * Kaplan, Carla (ed.). ''Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters''. New York: Random House, 2003. * Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...

, Zora Neale Hurston, and

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for m ...

", ''Theatre Journal'' 55 (2003), pp. 433–50. * Menefee, Samuel Pyeatt, "Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)." In Hilda Ellis Davidson and Carmen Blacker (eds.), ''Women and Tradition: A Neglected Group of Folklorists'', Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2000, pp. 157–72. * Trefler, Annette. "Possessing the Self: Caribbean Identities in Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse." African American Review. 34.2 (2000): 299–312. * Tucker, Cynthia. "Zora! Celebrated Storyteller Would Have Laughed at Controversy Over Her Origins. She Was Born In Notasulga, Alabama but Eatonville Fla., Claims Her As Its Own"; article documents Kristy Andersen's research into Hurston's birthplace; ''

Atlanta Journal and Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'', January 22, 1995. * Visweswaran, Kamala. ''Fictions of Feminist Ethnography.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. * Walker, Alice. "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston", ''

'' (March 1975), pp. 74–79, 84–89.

External links

*
Zora Neale Hurston
from the ''Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography''
Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival)

Writings of Hughes and Hurston
from

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

's '' American Writers: A Journey Through History''
Zora Neale Hurston
at Women Film Pioneers Project at

Libraries and archives

Zora Neale Hurston: 1891–1960
guide at Howard University *
Project Mosaic: Zora Neale Hurston
(

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

)
Olin Library Special Collection and Archive Zora Neale Hurston Collection
(Rollins College)
Zora Neale Hurston Collection
at the

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) ...

Sound recordings of Hurston in the 1930s
at the State Library and Archives of Florida
Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive
at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State Universi ...

University of Florida Digital Collections Archive
at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

Zora Neale Hurston Collection
. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Voices from the Gap's biography
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University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

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