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Zora Neale Hurston

February is Black History Month and we are highlighting Zora Neale Hurston, whose work has had profound impacts in literature and anthropology. 

Georgia O’Keeffe had a copy of Hurston's Tell My Horse in her Ghost Ranch Library. Tell My Horse (1938) is featured in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Library & Archive exhibition: Feminist Writings from Georgia O’Keeffe’s Personal Library.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Hurston was an anthropologist, writer and folklorist from the American rural South. Hurston’s work as anthropologist and writer centered around Black experiences in the American South and the Caribbean. She is considered a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and is renowned for her documentation and storytelling of Black voices and experiences. 

Learn more:

• Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space / PBS (video)
• 10 Things to Know About Zora Neale Hurston / Black Excellist (video)
• Zora Neale Hurston: The Official Website of Zora Neale Hurston
• Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive

Selected Publications

The Hilltop by Howard University

Publication Date: 1924

Hurston co-founded Howard University’s student run newspaper with Eugene King in 1924. The Hilltop is ‘The Nation’s Oldest Black Collegiate Newspaper’

See also:

• About the Hilltop / The Hilltop

 

Fire!! : a quarterly devoted to the younger Negro artists

Publication Date: 1926

Fire!! was a literary magazine founded by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett and others. Fire!! explored controversial topics such as homosexuality and color prejudice and covered different literary genres. “Fire!! was conceived to express the African American experience during the Harlem Renaissance in a modern and realistic fashion, using literature as a vehicle of enlightenment. The magazine's founders wanted to express the changing attitudes of younger Blacks”. -- African American Registry® (the Registry)

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication Date: 1937

This fictional work follows Janie Crawford, an African American woman in her 40s, as she recounts her life. Although it was not well received when first published in 1967, it is now widely considered a masterwork. Alice Walker’s 1975 essay in Ms. magazine, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston”, ushered in a reevaluation of the novel which is now used in African American studies and gender studies.

See also: 

• Books That Shaped America / Library of Congress
• Their Eyes Were Watching God / Wikipedia

 

Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston

Publication Date: 1938

This travelogue and anthropological investigation is Hurston’s account of experiences with voodoo while traveling to Jamaica and Haiti in the 1930s with support from the Guggenheim Foundation. Hurston was not an observer during her time in Jamaica and Haiti; she immersed herself in the communities and was an initiate herself.

See also:

• Tell My Horse / Zora Neale Hurston Official Website

 

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

ISBN: 9780062748201

Publication Date: 2018

In the late 1920s, Hurston interviewed Cudjoe Lewis, born Oluale Kossola. Kossola was a survivor of the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring enslaved people from Africa to the United States. Importation of enslaved people form Africa was banned in 1808 and the Clotilda shipped in 1860. Kossola was one of the founders of Africatown, a community developed by survivors of the Clotilda following the Civil War. Though Hurston completed the book in 1931, it was not published until 2018. Among Barracoon’s many recognitions: New York Times Bestseller, TIME Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2018, New York Public Library's Best Book of 2018, NPR's Book Concierge Best Book of 2018 and Economist Book of the Year.

See also:

• Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Barracoon’ Tells the Story of the Slave Trade’s Last Survivor / Anna Diamond
• Zora Neale Hurston wrote Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" in 1931 / Smithsonian (video)
• AfricaTown, Alabama is Founded / AAREG

 

Black History Month Resources

• About Black History Month
• American Association of School Libraries: Black History Month 
• 2023 Theme: Black Resistance
• African American History: Research Guides & Websites
• 15 Books to Read During Black History Month and Beyond