Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston went to college and pursued an education in anthropology at a time when very few Black women did the same. She was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and inspired an entire generation of Black writers when her works made a resurgence in the late 20th century

Zora Neale Hurston Biography

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama to formerly enslaved parents John Hurston and Lucy Potts Hurston. While still a toddler, the family moved to Eatonville, Florida, the place Zora Neale Hurston called home. Eatonville was a very unique town. Formed in 1887, it was America’s first all-Black incorporated township.

Fig. 1 - Zora Neale Hurston

Surrounded by Black role models, Zora Neale Hurston did not grow up in a racist environment that made her feel inferior. Her father was a preacher and served as the town’s mayor for multiple terms. Her mother was a schoolteacher who helped run Sunday school at the Church. The family lived in a large house with several acres of land.

Zora Neale Hurston’s life took a turn for the worse when her mother died in 1904. Her father quickly remarried and was no longer interested in caring for or supporting Zora Neale Hurston and her seven siblings. Hurston took up a series of odd jobs to support herself while she attempted to finish her schooling. Eventually, she left Eatonville without finishing high school to join a traveling opera troupe as a maid.

Fig. 2 - sign marker for the Eatonville Town Hall

Zora Neale Hurston Biography: Education and the Harlem Renaissance

In 1917, Zora Neale Hurston landed in Baltimore where she attended Morgan Academy to finish her high school education. She spent the summer working, before attending Howard Prep School in Washington D.C. in 1918. The next year, she began her college career at Howard University. While there, she published her first short story, “John Redding Goes to Sea” in the campus literary magazine and earned her associate degree.

In 1924, Opportunity magazine published Zora Neale Hurston’s second short story, “Drenched in Light,” and in 1925, they awarded her second place in two different literary competitions for her short story, “Spunk,” and her play, Color Struck. The same year, she received a scholarship to Barnard College, which took her to Harlem, New York City. She was at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.

Fig. 3 - Langston Hughes

Zora Neale Hurston Biography: Studies in Folklore

Zora Neale Hurston graduated from Barnard College in 1928 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. She pursued a graduate degree at Columbia University but never finished. Instead, she focused on field studies in folklore that took her across the South under the patronage of Charlotte Mason. In 1931, Hurston and Mason went separate ways and Hurston began work on her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, published in 1933.

Zora Neale Hurston received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936 and used the funding to visit both Jamaica and Haiti to study their folklore. While in Haiti, she began work on her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. Although we now remember Zora Neale Hurston for her novels and short stories rich with folklore, she published a variety of non-fiction works based on her studies as well.

Zora Neale Hurston Biography: Later Life

In 1942, Zora Neale Hurston published her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road, followed by her last novel Seraph on the Suwanee in 1948. She spent her later years pursuing her interest in theater and working a variety of jobs, such as a substitute teacher and a librarian, to support herself as she never received proper payment for her works. Although she had shown early promise in her career, her works were not instant classics and were largely forgotten by her death. She passed away penniless from heart disease on January 28th, 1960.

Zora Neale Hurston's Books and Quotes

Throughout her life, Zora Neale Hurston wrote short stories, essays, poems, books on folklore, and plays, but today we remember her for her four novels:

• Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934)

• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

• Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939)

• Seraph of the Suwanee (1948)

Zora Neale Hurston’s writings focused on the African American experience in the South and pulled on her knowledge of folklore. She often used the vernacular dialect to give her works authenticity as exemplified here:

She focused on the themes such as:

• Race and racial discrimination

• Gender roles and relations

• Influence of Black folklore

• Love versus independence

We can see her opinion on gender roles very clearly in her first novel:

Zora Neale Hurston’s Beliefs on Segregation

But what about Zora Neale Hurston’s beliefs on race and racial discrimination? Zora Neale Hurston was unique among other black writers in that she supported segregation. This could be due to her idyllic childhood in an all-Black town and/or her pride in Black culture and folklore. Regardless, when Brown v Board of Education made segregation illegal in 1954, Zora Neale Hurston spoke out against it.