“I was born in a Negro town.  I do not mean by that the black back-side of an average town.  Eatonville, Florida is, and was at the time of my birth, a pure Negro town-charter, mayor, council, town marshal and all.  It was not the first Negro community in America, but it was the first to be incorporated, the first attempt at organized self-government on the part of Negroes in America…”                                                                                                   -Zora Neale Hurston

Probably the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African American culture, Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), writer, folklorist, anthropologist, has since the 1970s enjoyed a revival of interest, due in large part to “disciples” such as Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple, and her biographer, Robert Hemenway, author of Zora Neale Hurston, A Literary Biography.

A woman of great intensity and charisma, and single-minded in her pursuit of collecting material on “the Negro farthest down,” Zora has secured her place among those who have painted the 20th century America’s cultural landscape.

She refused simply to record the ways of her people and thereby condemn her “studies” to dusty library shelves where only researchers would consider them.  Rather Zora used her creative genius to being the unique and wonderful culture of African Americans to mainstream America via captivating novels, short stories and dramatic presentations.  The woman from Eatonville, Florida, has captured the attention of a worldwide audience with her interpretation of African American culture as a part of the human saga.