Zora Neale Hurston

Early years

Zora Neale Hurston is known for celebrating the African American culture of the rural South of America. She wrote novels and books about Black mythology, legends, and folklore.

As a small child, Hurst moved from Alabama to Eatonville, Florida, with her family. Eatonville was the first all-Black city in the U.S. where African Americans lived there independent of white people. At age sixteen, she joined a travelling theatre company. She ended up in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. At this time, Black music and art was very popular. Hurston then went to Howard University from 1921 to 1924. She won a scholarship to go to Barnard College. Here, she studied anthropology, which is looking at human societies and cultures.

Black culture

Hurston studied Black culture in the South of America, as well as in Haiti, and Jamaica. She wrote a lot about Black culture, and about her own experiences of growing up as a Black person in the South.

Hurston sadly died from a stroke on 28^th January 1960. There was nothing written on her grave when she died, but in 1973, writing was added. It reads “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South”. She was given lots of awards for her work, both when she was alive and after she died.