Zora Neale Hurston
ANTHROPOLOGIST, FOLKLORIST & WRITER
Birthplace: Eatonville, Florida.
January 7, 1891 - January 28, 1960
Zora's 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 1920's and 1930's, 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 Zora's literary works are:
Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934)
Mules and Men (1935)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Tell My Horse (1938)
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)