Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, to parents Lucy Potts Hurston and John Cornelius Hurston, who were both born enslaved. She was raised in Eatonville, Florida — the first town in the United States to be founded and governed by African Americans — where her father served as mayor. Young Zora experienced a culturally rich childhood and was very proud of her Florida roots.After her mother's death in 1904, Zora was sent to school in Jacksonville. The years that followed were marked by poverty and youthful rebellion — but Zora was always working and always learning. She graduated from Howard University in 1920 and Barnard College in 1928.
Early Publications & Anthropology
During the 1920s, Hurston's work with a traveling theater troupe brought her to New York City, where she became a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance (a Black cultural renaissance that took place from about 1915-1930). Her unique writing voice and undeniable intelligence made her many friends in Harlem — poet Langston Hughes and novelist Countee Cullen among them.
The publication of "John Redding Goes to Sea" in The Stylus magazine in May of 1921 and “Drenched in Light” in Opportunity magazine in 1924 helped launch Hurston's literary career. She was prolific throughout her lifetime, writing dozens of short stories, essays, poems, plays, and novels.
To see more of Zora Neale Hurston's Publications, scroll to the " Selected Works" section, below.
While pursuing her master's degree at Columbia University, Hurston studied under Frank Boas — the "Father of American Anthropology." This spurred a lifelong passion for the field. Like Boas, Hurston worked to redefine the practices of anthropology in a way that was more respectful of Indigenous populations.
Her dedication to preserving Black culture extended to Jamaica and Haiti, where she collected folk stories, learned about creole cultures, and published books like Tell My Horse (1938).
The Federal Writer's Project
Near the end of the Great Depression (1929-1939) in 1938 and 1939, Zora Neale Hurston worked for the federal government under the Federal Writer's Project. Stetson Kennedy (Florida native and iconic writer, activist) worked alongside Hurston, collecting oral histories and folklore throughout Florida.