Zora Neale Hurston

ANTHROPOLOGIST, FOLKLORIST & WRITER

Birthplace: Eatonville, Florida.

January 7, 1891 - January 28, 1960

Zoras parents were John Hurston and Lucy Potts Hurston. Her mother died when she

was a child. In 1917, she moved from Eatonville to Baltimore, Maryland due to some

problems at home. She obtained her formal education from Morgan Academy, Howard

Prep School, Howard University and Barnard College. While she was at Barnard, her

mentor was Frank Boas, a famous anthropologist.

Zora was apart of the great black literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance.

Sadly, later in life Zora became destitute in her finances as well as her health. She died at the St. Lucie

County Welfare home and was buried in an unmarked grave. Alice Walker, an African American novelist,

discovered her grave and put a gravemarker on the site in 1973. Some of Zoras literary works are:

Jonahs Gourd Vine (1934)

Mules and Men (1935)

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Tell My Horse (1938)

Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)

BlackFacts Details

Martin Luther King Jr. Facts