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Featured Bio:

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Zora Neale Hurston

b. 1/07/1891 (Notasluga, AL) – 1/28/1960 (Fort Pierce, FL) (African American Heritage)

"Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American novelist whose rich literary work has inspired generations of readers.

Despite her reputation as a writer, there exists another side to Hurston’s career. In 1938 and 1939, during the Great Depression, Hurston worked as a folklorist and contributor to the Florida division of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), part of the Works Progress Administration.

Through her work with the FWP, Hurston captured stories, songs, traditions and histories from African-Americans in small communities across Florida, whose stories often failed to make it into the histories of that time period.

In 1939, Hurston went to Cross City in Dixie County, Florida, to find candidates for recording interviews, songs and life histories of interesting everyday people. Hurston’s essay, “Turpentine,” traced her travels through the pine forests with an African-American “woods rider” named John McFarlin. Her work on Florida’s turpentine camps is still considered authoritative.

Back in Jacksonville, Hurston’s final major contribution to the Florida FWP was to arrange a recording session at the Clara White Mission featuring African-Americans telling stories and singing or chanting traditional music for preservation. She also sang 18 songs herself, mostly work songs and folk songs.

This educational unit introduces primary source documents, photographs and audio recordings from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida and the Library of Congress” (Florida Memory).

Shove It Over - Zora Neale Hurston

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Recorded June 18, 1939, by Stetson Kennedy & Herbert Halbert in Jacksonville.

Music from the Florida Folklife Collection.

Mildred Board oral history for the Zora Neale Hurston Festival

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Recorded at the 1990 Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida.

Provided by Florida Memory.


A letter from George L. Burr Jr., executive director of Florida's State Defense Council, to Dr. J. R. E. Lee, president of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, recommending Zora Neale Hurston as a potential candidate for the State Defense Council's Advisory Committee on Negro Participation.	*Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston - Eatonville, Florida. She was an author and anthropologist. Her first book was Jonah's Gourd Vine.*	Poster describing the Florida Women's Hall of Fame, Governor and Mrs. Bob Graham, Lieutenant Governor and Mrs. Wayne Mixson, and the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women. The poster identifies the 1984 inductees, including Barbara Landstreet Frye, Zora Neale Hurston, Julia Tuttle, Roxcy O'Neal Bolton, Lena Smithers Hughes, Sybil Mobley, Helen Muir, and Gladys P. Soler.
*1942*	*1900 (circa)*	*1984*
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*Alice Walker being interviewed at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities - Eatonville, Florida.*	*Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston - Eatonville, Florida.*	*Gabriel Brown playing guitar as Rochelle French and Zora Neale Hurston listen- Eatonville, Florida.*
*1990*	*1900 (circa)*	*1935*
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*Lucy Hurston Hogan with her cousin at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities - Eatonville, Florida.*	*Painting of Zora Neale Hurston. Painting was presented at a Florida Cabinet meeting.*	*Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston - Eatonville, Florida.*
*1990*	*1978*	*1900 (circa)*
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African American Exhibit:

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"The United States has a long history of Black immigration driven by the slave trade of past centuries, but free Black immigration from Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon. Today there are about 1.1 million Black African immigrants, comprising 3 percent of the total US foreign-born population. Black Africans are among the fastest-growing groups of US immigrants, increasing by about 200 percent during the 1980s and 1990s and nearly 100 percent during the 2000s." (Capps, McCabe, Fix)

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Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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