Hurston, Zora Neale
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Hurston, Zora Neale
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Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and a playwright who lived from 1891-1960 and who was an advocate for Civil Rights.
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Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and a playwright who lived from 1891-1960 and who was an advocate for Civil Rights. Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 in Alabama, and moved to Eatonville, Florida, when she was a baby. Educated at Howard and Barnard, she trained as an anthropologist, collecting stories and information among poor, rural Black southerners. Turning her information into plays and works of fiction, she was part of the Harlem Renaissance, which celebrated African American lives and culture. Coming from Eatonville, just a few miles from Rollins College, Zora developed relationships with some of the faculty in the English Department--Edwin Osgood Grover and William Robert Wunsch. With their help she staged one of her plays--From Sun to Sun--on the campus with an all-Black cast and an all-White audience. Zora Neale Hurston published many literary works including folklore, plays, and novels during her life, yet Zora never saw a lot of success. Eventually, due to her lack of success, she had to become a substitute teacher in order to make ends meet. She died in 1960 in Fort Pierce, Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1973, Alice Walker erected a tombstone for her in the cemetery.
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January 7, 1891
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January 28, 1960
Position: 1008 (75 views)
