by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891, or 1901, in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated exclusively African American town in the United States. (The year of Hurston’s birth, probably 1891, is in dispute). A voracious reader, Hurston learned to decipher words before kindergarten but obstacles in childhood, including the death of her mother when she was nine, prevented her from attending high school until her twenties. Hurston went on to attend Howard University, later earning a scholarship to Barnard College. At Barnard Hurston studied anthropology under the tutelage of famed social scientist Franz Boas before graduating in 1928. For several years she worked as an apprentice anthropologist, documenting the folklore of African Americans in the South, as well as Caribbean rituals and culture. Hurston had earlier won second prize in a magazine contest sponsored by...