Zora Neale Hurston Research Paper

Sarah Joseph

Ms. Hoag

U. S. History 4

16 December 2014

Zora Neale Hurston During the Roaring 1920’s in the United States, Black writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston, began to emerge. Zora Neale Hurston was raised in an all Black community in Eatonville, Florida where she had lived a content life up until her mother passed away. Her mother had inspired her to take a chance, telling her, “We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground” (Boyd). Hurston’s father, John Hurston, had married a woman who Zora Neale Hurston strongly disliked since her father’s time and money went to his new wife, instead of his children. Looking into the past, Zora Hurston wrote, “that day began my wanderings...Not so much in geography,

citizens in a positive way. Hurston wanted Whites to realize that “Folklore is inside stuff, the unofficial and uncensored expression of a group's beliefs and values. Stories explaining ‘why Negroes are black’ or ‘why Negroes have nothing’ can reveal both an acute understanding of social oppression and a discomfiting degree of racial self-hatred” (Wall). The reason why Zora Hurston enjoyed folklore so much was because it expressed true feelings. She wanted to share these feelings with others. In order to do so, she directed a Negro Spiritual Folk Festival in 1938. The festival included lining hymns, rhythms and folklore and other forms of sharing Black’s perception (“The Washington

To this day, people are reading and studying her novels. However, there was a long period of time in which people had stopped reading/listening to her material because she had been accused of a crime. She had been charged with molesting a boy in the 1940’s, yet there was no definitive proof. This accusation caused “...no publisher [to be] willing to publish her work. The repetitive rejection sunk Hurston into deep sorrow, causing severe depression” (“Zora Neale Hurston”). No company wanted to produce for a someone the public would not accept, despite her talent. Since no one would support her she descended into a life of poverty and died from a heart attack in 1960. Her grave was unknown and unmarked until Alice Walker, a writer who was intrigued by Hurston's work, researched her and found her burial sight. Walker believed that Zora Neale Hurston deserved to be recognized and wrote on her grave stone “Zora Neale Hurston: a Genius of the South” (Boyd). Alice Walker had been inspired by “...the role of women of color in history, culture, and society... in addition to... writers such as Zora Neale Hurston” and wrote the award winning book, The Color Purple. Zora Neale Hurston not only influenced the public’s opinion through her own work, she also inspired other writers to continue to give Black’s a