Early 1800sFL HistoryFamous Floridians: Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neal Hurston wrote, “Mama exhorted herchildren at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’We might not land on the sun, but at least wewould get off the ground.” Hurston certainly“jumped at de sun.”

Hurston is noted as the first Black American tocollect and publish African-American andAfro-Caribbean folklore. She wrotestories, novels, anthropological folklore,and an autobiography. She couldwrite about the most ordinary thingsand make them infinitelygorgeous. Her charactersappeared real and human. Herworks have increased inpopularity with the passingof time.

She was born in Alabama. Inthe first year or two of herlife, her family moved toEatonville, Florida, a smallblack community nearOrlando. This communityshaped her life and herwriting. She once wrote,“I’ve got the map of Florida on my tongue.” Shewas so proud of her heritage as a black Floridianthat in her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road,she claimed she was born in Eatonville.

In 1904, thirteen-year-old Zora was devastated bythe death of her mother. Later that same year, herfather removed her from school and sent her tocare for her brother’s children. A rambunctiousand restless teenager, Zora was eager to leave the

responsibility of that household. She became amember of a traveling theater at the age of sixteen.After that she did domestic work for a whitehousehold. It was in this home that Hurston’sintellectual spark was discovered. The woman forwhom Zora worked bought Zora her first bookand arranged for her to attend high school.

After high school graduation, Hurstonheld jobs as a waitress and a

manicurist. She attendedHoward, Barnard, andColumbia universities, where shestudied anthropology. Shereturned to the South in the1920s. She collected materials forher four novels and book Mulesand Men. Mules and Men hasbeen called “the greatest book ofAfrican-American folklore everwritten.”

In 1925, Hurston headed to NewYork City and became part of theHarlem Renaissance*. Sheattended parties with othernotable African-American

writers. Hurston apparently cut quite a figure inHarlem society. With her hat perched jauntily onher head, she entertained groups with her tales ofEatonville. In this stylish period, she wasconsidered flamboyant and somewhat shocking.She was also sometimes considered controversial.Her writing was the first time black folk in theSouth were presented as normal people—notdowntrodden by prejudice, not victims of racism.

Zora Neale Hurston

1891-1960

EATONVILLE

Over the next several years, Hurston would travelin the South, interviewing storytellers in Floridaand Voodoo doctors in New Orleans. This wouldprovide material for her writing. The 1930s andearly 1940s marked the peak of Hurston’s literarycareer. Her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were WatchingGod is generally considered to be her mostpowerful novel. It is about a young blackwoman’s coming of age in rural Florida.

Hurston returned to Florida in 1948 and fadedinto obscurity. She was rediscovered in the1970s. Today she is studied in college courses.She is generally looked upon as one of the finestAmerican novelists of the first half of the 20thcentury. But Hurston would probably considerher highest accolade to be a festival held in herhonor every year in Eatonville, the town she lovedto claim as her own.

EatonvilleEatonville, Florida is a small community of greatsignificance to African-American history andculture. Of the more than one hundred blacktowns founded between 1865 and 1900, fewerthan twelve remain today. Eatonville is the oldest.

Reconstruction after the Civil War was a time ofjoy and for building a better way of living forblacks. At first, newly freed blacks began toestablish homes and businesses in whitecommunities. By the 1800s, tensions from thisnew coexistence gave rise to segregation, theseparation of blacks to a particular area in thecommunity.

Rather than endure the indignities of restriction,some blacks established race colonies,communities of their own. These colonies often

resembled extended families. They were centeredon education and religion. Eatonville was acommunity founded in this tradition.

On August 15, 1887, 27 registered voters, all blackmen, met in a building they call Town Hall andvoted unanimously to incorporate. Eatonville wasborn and history was made.

Eatonville’s cultural importance was secured whenthe town was immortalized in the works of itsrenowned native daughter, Zora Neale Hurston.Her words captured forever the culture of thecommunity and painted an image of anenvironment typical of the rural southernworking-class African-American. Today the towncontinues to celebrate its connection with Hurstonthrough the annual arts and humanities events atthe Zora Neale Hurston Festival

*Harlem Renaissance refers to the Black literaryand cultural movement of the 1920s—during thisperiod, Harlem (a part of New York City) was thecenter for many creative Blacks from the Caribbeanand the United States.

Eatonville is located on the East side of Florida.

1891-1960