Excerpted from "Enabling Connections to Empower Place: The Carolinas" in Black Landscapes Matter (University of Virginia Press, 2020). The story attracted the attention of the Lippincott publishing company, whose representatives asked Hurston if she had written a novel. Impressed by Hurston, Mason offered to support her while she conducted her anthropological work, and in December the two women signed a contract. ." 2023 . In 1950 she moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, and took on a series of jobs, among them a librarian, maid, and substitute teacher. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. She lifted her eyes to the door and saw him standing there bent over with laughter at her fright. Born January 7, 1891, in Eatonville, FL; died of heart disease, January 28, 1960, in Fort Pierce, FL; daughter of John (a carpenter, reverend, and mayor) and Lucy Ann (a teacher and seamstress; maiden name, Potts) Hurston; married Herbert Sheen (a doctor), May 19, 1927 (divorced, 1931); married Albert Price III, June 27, 1939 (divorced, 1943). Locke had a prominent role in the Harlem Renaissance, particularly with his editorship of the The New Negro: An Interpretation. [4] Author Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville and the area features in many of her stories. In Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (2002), author Valerie Boyd speculates that Hurston began revising her birth date in 1917, when she subtracted ten years in order to qualify for free schooling. Mason offered to fund Hurston's anthropological research, and Hurston signed a contract that gave Mason the right to review all the material she collected. She was the fifth of eight children born to Lucy Ann Hurston, who had been a country schoolteacher, and John Hurston, a carpenter and Baptist preacher who served as mayor of Eatonville for three terms. Hurston defies sentimentality with these endings, and she opts for a seedier reality. [7], On November 22, 1992, an F4 tornado with winds up to 260mph hit the south portions of the city. Located on the eastern boundary of Eatonville, the Moseley House is the second oldest structure in the town of Eatonville and has been restored as a museum. Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. Published first story, 1921; assistant to writer Fannie Hurst, 1925-26; collected folklore in the South, 1927-31; taught drama at Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona, FL, 1933-34; collected conjure lore in Jamaica, Haiti, and Bermuda, 1936-38; collected folklore in Florida for the Works Progress Administration, 1938-39; drama instructor at North Carolina College for Negroes at Durham (now North Carolina Central University), 1939; story consultant for Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA, 1941-42; conducted folklore fieldwork in Honduras, 1947-48; employed as a maid in Rivo Island, FL, 1950; free-lance writer, 1950-56; librarian at Patrick Air Force Base, FL, 1956-57; substitute teacher at Lincoln Park Academy, Fort Pierce, FL, 1958-59. Although almost everyone recognized the book as an important work of anthropology, some faulted Hurston for writing in a tone that seemed too light and carefree and for again ignoring racial issues. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. The mound and related earthwork constructions were made by Woodland culture peoples, perhaps as long ago as 1,000 to 3,000 years. She spent the next three years traveling around (mostly in Alabama and Florida), gathering a huge amount of material that included songs, dances, tales, superstitions, and notes on the speech patterns and slang used by the African Americans she encountered. Negro Digest 2 (June): 2526. Hurston, Zora Neale. A reggae band plays during Sunday brunch as regulars greet each other with wah gwaan, a Jamaican greeting for hey, whats up. The red, green, and yellow walls are lined with bits of the history of Eatonville and inspirational quotes from Hurstons books. During the Harlem Renaissance, Locke was one of several people who served as mentors to a new generation of cultural stars, including Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Retrieved June 30, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hurston-zora-neale, Born 7 January 1891, Eatonville, Florida; died 28 January 1960, Saint Lucie County, Florida. Some of the pieces are comic, some darkly humorous, and some tragic. After many years of poor health, she suffered a stroke in 1958 and was forced to enter the Saint Lucie County Welfare Home, a place where low-income people could receive longterm care, in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she died in early 1960. ." During the last two decades of her life Hurston continued to write but did not publish much, especially after the appearance of her final novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, in 1948. On August 15, 1887, 27 electors gathered at the "town hall" to cast their votes and the first town to be organized, governed, and incorporated by African-American citizens in this country was born. 6. Join our community to receive special updates and a password to unlock exclusive travel resources. The trip also directed the budding anthropologist to a largely unexplored and exciting subject: voodoo. Reviews of Hurston's books in her time were mixed. In January 1925 Hurston arrived in Harlem with, as she recalled in her autobiography, "$1.50, no job, no friends, and a lot of hope.". . New York: HarperCollins. Hurston wrote three other novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), an autobiographical novel about her father's rise from an illiterate laborer to become a respected Baptist minister; Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), which recreated Mosaic biblical myth in an African context; and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), which is about a woman's search for selfhood within the confines of marriage to a man who sees all women as inferior. Began Simple, Bontemps, Arna 19021973 . She was a great favorite among those whites who went in for Negro prodigies.". In 2005 Hurstons novel Their Eyes Were Watching God became a television movie starring Academy Awardwinning actress Halle Berry. She soon became an active part of the group of painters, musicians, sculptors, entertainers, and writers who came from across the country to participate in Harlem's unprecedented flowering of black arts. At this point Hurston began to be courted by magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest for contributions. The town is named after Josiah C. Eaton, one of a small group of white land owners who were willing to sell land to blacks at the time. 1980; Hurston edited by Harold Bloom, 1986; New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God edited by Michael Awkward, 1990; Zora! That's where she went to collect black folklore. https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hurston-zora-neale, "Hurston, Zora Neale Just from one fancy to another, adding more and more detail until they seemed real." In Jonahs Gourd Vine, Zora Neale Hurston, 207229. Encyclopedia.com. What White Publishers Wont Print. Although Hurston is best known for works written in later decades (especially her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God), her vibrant personality and sense of humor made her a popular and vital participant in the Harlem Renaissance. . ." July 11, 2022 T. Michele Walker The iconic sign, "The Town That Freedom Built." (ROBERTO GONZALEZ) Tucked between Maitland and Winter Park, just 5.28 miles to the north of Orlando, lies the town of Eatonville, the oldest incorporated African American municipality in America. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. 1990b. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her. By Kirsten Harrington | February 1, 2023 United StatesHistory. New York: Doubleday, 2001. His wife gave a little scream of dismay and quickly gathered them together again. Smith, B., The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom (1998). Encyclopedia.com. The central character is feisty Janie Woods, who tells the story of her life to a friend, recounting her marriages to three husbands: the first a middle-aged farmer; the second a handsome and ambitious man who takes her to live in Eatonville, Florida; and finally Tea Cake Woods, a migrant farm-worker who makes her happy until he contracts rabies and she is forced to kill him in self-defense. So she collected the soiled clothes on Saturday when she returned the clean things. Funded by Guggenheim fellowships and by her long-term relationship with a wealthy New York City patron, Hurston spent the next decade researching black folklore in the South and tracking conjure lorea quest that took her from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Jamaica, and finally Haiti, where she photographed an apparent zombie. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. . Thomas Adiel Sherwood, Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1873 to 1902, was born there.[15][16]. Yates, J., Zora Neale Hurston: A Storyteller's Life (1993). In the fall of 1939 Hurston became a drama instructor at the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham. Eatonville: "The town that freedom built," a history of - WFTV Bone, R., The Negro Novel in America (1958). The 1930s proved a prolific period for Hurston: She published Hoodoo in America in the Journal of American Folklore in 1931, conducted ethnographic research on West Indian Obeah practices in 1936 in Jamaica and Haiti under a Guggenheim fellowship, and wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks and published it in 1937. Founded in 1887, Eatonville was among the early all-Black incorporated municipalities established in the decades after the end of slavery in the U.S. Around 1,200 Black towns or settlements were established in the late 19th century and early 20th century, according to the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance. The entire anthology has the essence of a pilgrimage; it begins as does Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with a description of all the independent characters involved in the community, but in contrast to Chaucer's pilgrims, these characters go nowhere. New York Times, June 2, 1978; February 10, 1991. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Routes 129 and 441, which meet in and form the western boundary of the city. Subscribe to Well Adjusted, our newsletter full of simple strategies to work smarter and live better, from the Fortune Well team. She did something." More than thirty years later, Their Eyes Were Watching God was championed by contemporary African American author Alice Walker, who credited Hurston with inspiring her own work. Updated: 7:20 AM EDT Jun 21, 2022 Show Transcript EATONVILLE, Fla. As the nation commemorates the holiday of Juneteenth, WESH 2 is taking a deep dive into historic Eatonville, a small town. Hurston also began writing short stories. Supplies were carried by his stage from Spanaway over a rough trail through dense forest. However, critics have faulted plot construction, characterization, and dialogue. Sandwiched between the beginning of World War II and the Great Depression of International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. ", He snorted scornfully. The storm caused $27,000,000 in damages to houses and businesses. Criticism He believed in nurturing the talents of young black writers and artists. B. Lippincott. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, c. 1917 Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Sweat. The case was thrown out of court but not before the black press ran it as a front-page scandal. This work produced two collections of folklore, Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse (1939). As she recounted in her autobiography, one of her favorite pastimes was to sit atop a gatepost. Her father, a carpenter and Baptist preacher and a signer of Eatonville's charter, was elected mayor for three terms in succession. "Ah done tole you time and time again to keep them white folks' clothes outa dis house.". During the Harlem Renaissance she published several memorable short stories and honed the skills that would come to fruition in later years, when her novels and nonfiction works appeared. Philadelphia: J. Hurst soon offered Hurston a job as her secretary and chauffeur, and Meyer arranged for a scholarship so that Hurston could study anthropology at Barnard. Cronin, G. L., ed., Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston (1998). Harlem Renaissance. Hurston began her writing career while at Howard when she wrote her first short story for Stylus, a college literary magazine. Black World (Aug. 1972). Incorporated in 1887, it is the first town successfully established by African American freedmen. Hurston had a variety of jobs in addition to the writing recognition that brought her fame. He ain't fuh you to be drivin' wid no bull whip. ." (We keep your private info locked.). ." From 1928 to 1932 she studied anthropology and folklore at Columbia University under Franz Boas, the renown anthropologist. Zora Neale Hurston managed to avoid many of the restraints placed upon women, blacks, and specifically black artists by American society during the first half of the twentieth century. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Bloom, Harold, ed. . 2023 . Watson, Steven. "Hurston, Zora Neale The central character in Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), John "Buddy" Pearson, was modeled after Hurston's father. In 1933, while researching for what has since become his most renowned novel, Bl, Toomer, Jean American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. A Florida town, once settled by former slaves, now fights over "sacred "Hurston, Zora Neale Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Eatonville, FL Critics who complain about this work identify its shortcomings as its lack of self-revelation, the misleading personal information Hurston gives about herself, and the significant roles that whites play in the text. To establish a success town, the residents and officials . She was a member of the American Folklore Society, the Anthropological Society, the Ethnological Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Conscience of the Court. Hurston and her writings disappeared from public view from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. It is one of two such sites east of the Mississippi River; both are in Putnam County. . Lowe, J., Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy (1994). Although the charges were dismissed a year later, the event took its toll. In September 1927 Hurston met Charlotte Mason (18541946), a wealthy white woman known as "Godmother" because she provided financial support to a number of Harlem Renaissance writers and artists (including Hughes and sculptor Richmond Barthe [19011989]). Every way I turned, it was there, and the same distance away. By 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, and Hurston moved to New York, where she collected prizes for her fiction and drama, and studied anthropology with Franz Boas at Columbia University. Males had a median income of $24,883 versus $18,193 for females. Her best efforts were "Spunk," "Sweat," and "The Gilded Six-Bits.". All-black towns across America: Life was hard but full of promise Numerous tragedies struck Hurston in the 1940s. Eatonton is located at 331935N 832316W / 33.32639N 83.38778W / 33.32639; -83.38778 (33.326302, -83.387798).[9]. She also went through a painful breakup with her good friend Langston Hughes after the two had worked together on a play called Mule Bone, which was based on one of the folktales Hurston had collected. Also in 1943 she was given an alumni award from Howard University. He is a carpenter and preacher who often finds himself at the mercy of his very human weaknesses, especially a tendency to be unfaithful to each of three successive wives. "Ah ain't for no fuss t'night Sykes. The latter story was published in the single issue of a magazine called Fire that Hughes, Hurston, and Thurman produced. Walker discovered that Hurston's final return to the South occurred in the 1950s when, still trying to write, she supported herself with menial jobs. The founding of this town stands as an enormous achievement for once-enslaved Black men and women throughout the United States. Her mother, formerly a country schoolteacher, taught Sunday school but spent most of her time raising her eight children. One such family that moved to town was that of Zora Neale Hurston, the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance writer who recorded her childhood in Eatonville and later years in Dust Tracks on a Road. I want a busy life, a just mind and a timely death.". . McClaurin, Irma. Encyclopedia.com. In the short story Isis daydreams about the horizon: "She rode white horses with flaring pink nostrils to the horizon, for she still believed that to be the land's end." The story of how she had "touched the four corners of the horizon" in her life was well received by readers, even though some considered it an overly flattering and not entirely accurate portrayal. Hurston, Zora Neale. Hurston's new reputation as an accomplished writer led to the publication of the collected folktales and other materials that she had always called her "story book." It is one of the more than 100 black towns founded . Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings (1999). was founded in 1906. The association, along with other Eatonville residents, fear the sale of the property in a centrally-located part of fast-growing metro Orlando will increase traffic and price out longtime residents of the town, many whose families have lived there for generations. A visit to RISE was one of the highlights of my time in Eatonville. The death of Hurston's mother in 1904 disrupted her economically and emotionally stable home life, and a year later, at fourteen, she left home to take a job as a maid and wardrobe assistant in a traveling Gilbert and Sullivan company. Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. She was living in Eatonville when she wrote "The Gilded Six Bits," which is considered one of her best pieces of writing and which helped to boost her career. ." Understanding Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Hurston found herself being passed from relative to relative, while working as a nanny and a housekeeper. Themes The Harlem Renaissance was a period between World War I and the Great Depression when black artists and writers flourished in the United Stat, Langston Hughes 19021967 Hurston tells her life story in the autobiography Dust Tracks on the Road (1942, 1985). Eatonville, Fla., where Zora Neale Hurston grew up, was incorporated in 1887. This first journey proved a failure, though, probably because Hurston made the mistake of speaking to the rural people she met in an educated, East Coast voice that made them uncomfortable. Hurston is lauded for her utilization of folklore, the ripeness and realism of black dialect, the poetic sermon, and the distinct racial flavor of Jonah's Gourd Vine. With the women's movement of the 1970s and the growth of female awareness that followed, many critics cited this novel as the central text in the canon (list of the best) of literature by African American women writers, specifically, and by women writers in general.