Long before hashtags like #BlackStoriesMatter trended, Zora Neale Hurston fought to preserve Black culture’s richness, one folktale, novel, and anthropological study at a time. A literary titan, a folklore archivist, and a defiant visionary, Hurston’s legacy is being resurrected for Black History Month.
Zora Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama. She spent her childhood in Eatonville, Florida, the first self-governing all-black town in the United States. She characterized it as “a city with five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred brown-skinned residents, three hundred skilled swimmers, an abundance of guavas, two schools, and no jail.”
After her mother passed away in 1904, Hurston left school. Following what she referred to as “years of wandering,” she returned to education at 26, pretending to be 16 to qualify for free schooling. Upon graduating, Hurston continued her studies at Howard University in Washington, where she earned an associate degree in 1920. In 1921, she released her first story, ‘John Redding Goes to Sea,’ in a literary magazine published by the university’s literary society.
Zora Hurston shattered barriers as the first African-American graduate of Barnard College, where she studied anthropology under Franz Boas, the “father of modern anthropology.” But Hurston wasn’t content with ivory tower academia. Armed with a recorder, a notebook, and unshakable curiosity, she ventured into the rural South, Haiti, and Jamaica, documenting Black folklore, spiritual practices, and vernacular traditions that white institutions had long ignored or dismissed.
Although Hurston’s 1937 work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, has become a fundamental part of school reading lists, her professional journey was filled with both recognition and neglect. Her “folksy” dialect and focus on the inner lives of Black women led to her being dismissed by male contemporaries during the Harlem Renaissance, and her work faded into obscurity after her passing in 1960. However, the Black feminist movement of the 1970s brought her back to prominence, with Alice Walker famously placing a headstone on Hurston’s unmarked grave in 1973 and calling her “a genius of the South.”
Zora Hurston’s influence on American literature is undeniable, but her commitment to safeguarding Black narratives and folklore might be her most lasting contribution. At a time when many chose to overlook or erase Black voices, Hurston made sure they were documented and honored. Her work set the stage for upcoming generations of Black writers and anthropologists, demonstrating that cultural heritage holds equal importance to the narratives themselves.
Thus, whether you’re revisiting Their Eyes Were Watching God countless times or you’re interested in the recent documentary highlighting her life, one thing is evident: Zora Neale Hurston was and continues to be a pioneer whose dedication to preserving Black stories transformed American literature for good.
