Download Zora Hurston

Zora Hurston
10th Grade Honors English
Harlem Renaissance Presentation
Departure point:
“But I am not tragically colored. There is no great
sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind
my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the
sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature
somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and
whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the
helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen
that the world is to the strong regardless of a little
pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the
world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife”
(Hurston).
And sharpen she did…
Professionally, she wrote and published
prolifically from the 1930s through the
1960s:



seven books—”Eyes” in 1937 being her most
famous (over 29 have been written about
her).
Close to 100 short stories, magazine articles,
and plays
She also gained a reputation as an
outstanding folklorist and novelist of AfricanAmerican southern tales
Personally, she was an enigma*:
Hurston’s claim: Born during “hog-killing
time”—January 7th and gave 1898-1903 as
dates, Eatonville as the locationfamily
bible, a brother and census records her
birth in January 1891 in Alabama
Married (maybe for #1) twice or thrice, and
separated within months/divorced years
later. Intense love affair during the time she
wrote “Eyes”
*puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
Personally, she was an enigma:
“Hurston counted herself one of the progressive
"New Negroes" and slyly proclaimed herself
"Queen of the Niggerati." She feuded with Richard
Wright and the Communists, drove a red
convertible, packed a gun at times for protection
and once knocked out a masher who propositioned
her in an elevator (Blumenthal)”.
Lived large portions of her life in near-poverty, died
in a welfare home for the aged, buried in unmarked
grave with works out of print.
Youth:
Father
carpenter and preacher
 forbade reading of novels
 mayor of Eatonville for 3 terms

Mother, school teacher who died when Zora
was 9
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to
“jump at de sun.” We might not land on the sun, but at
least we would get off the ground.
- Zora Neale Hurston
Youth:
After her father remarried, she left Eatonville to be
"passed around the family like a bad penny."
In 1917, left Eatonville and finished high school in
Baltimore
She attended Howard University from 1921 to
1924 and in 1925 won a scholarship to Barnard
College, graduating as it’s first African-American
to do so.
Also graduate work for 2 years at Columbia
University.
Harlem Renaissance NYC
“Zora Hurston was an extraordinary witty
woman, and she acquired an instant reputation
in New York for her high spirits and sidesplitting tales of Eatonville life. She could
walk into a room of strangers . . . and almost
immediately gather people, charm, amuse, and
impress them (Canada)."
Harlem Renaissance NYC
Patronage of Charlotte Mason, “Godmother”


black people possessed a spirit that was pure and deep;
spirit that white people lost in lust for $
Funded for folklore south and voodoo in West Indies
Friendship with Langston Hughes; “Mule Bone”
fallout
Published most of her books in the 1930’s (Moses,
Man of the Mountain, Mules and Men, Their Eyes
were Watching God)
And then…
Zora’s books didn’t sell well and went out of
print
Politics and plagiarism issues
In 1942, published her autobiography, Dust
Tracks on a Road –met with criticism
(white/black issues again) and accusations of
self-aggrandizing*)
*To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
And then, cont…
Left NY and spent her time writing, mainly for
magazines, and living in Florida, including on
houseboat on numerous Florida rivers and trips to
Bahamas for voodoo research for next 18 years
In 1948, accused of child molestation—10 year old
retarded boy (acquitted)depression
Jobs in her life included:

Maid, Waitress, Manicurist, Writer-Novelist and Playwright,
Anthropologist, Folklorist, Drama Instructor, Story
Consultant – Paramount Pictures, Librarian, Republican
congressional campaigner, Reporter, Substitute Teacher
Death and Alice
1959 suffered severe stroke and admitted to
welfare home in St. Lucie, Florida
dies in the welfare home as a result of
hypertensive heart disease and was buried in a
segregated cemetery with an unmarked grave.
1973: Novelist Alice Walker goes on a "Zora
expedition" retracing her roots to write a book
about her. Discovers Hurston’s unmarked grave
and purchases a headstone for it.
which reads:
Zora Neale Hurston,
A Genius of the South.
Novelist, Folklorist, Anthropologist.
Works Cited
Blumenthal, Ralph. “Party for Zora Neale Hurston, Obscure No More.” New York Times, August 15,
2002.
Canada, Mark, ed. "Zora Neale Hurston." Canada's America. 1997.
< http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/faulkner.htm (*>).
Haskins, Jim. Harlem Renaissance. Brookfield, CN: The Millbrook Press, 1996.
Hurston, Zora Neale. “How it Feels to Be Colored Me.” Originally published in World Tomorrow.
1928. 10 Feb. 2004 <http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/wsharpe/citylit/colored_me.htm>.
Luker, Ralph E. "Hurston, Zora Neale.” American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
19 Feb 2004 . <http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00817.html>.
McHenry, Robert (ed.). “Zora Hurston:Her Heritage: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Famous American
Women.” 2003. 11 Feb 2004 <http://static.elibrary.com/h
/herheritageabiographicalencyclopediaoffamousameric/december201995/hurstonzoranealebiogra
phy/index.html>.
Nathiri, N.Y. Zora!: Zora Neale Hurston—A Woman of her Community. Orlando: Sentinel
Communications Company, 1991.