In February of 1960, a Deputy Sheriff in Fort Pierce, Florida, went to a small block house less than a mile off Route 1. He was responding to a fire: someone had seen smoke rising from that location, and burning was against the law without a permit. The Sheriff asked the man tending the flames what he was burning. The reply was, ”Stuff out of the former home of Zora Neale Hurston;” the writer who had died the month prior and, apparently, whose legacy was about to go as well. The Sheriff pulled her manuscripts from the fire, rescuing them from near-extinction. 

This incident well illustrates some of the central tensions that drove Hurston’s career. She was beloved and well-respected by some people, and a virtual unknown to others; she fought fiercely to live life as an artist and on her own terms, but she died a pauper’s death: for years, her remains rested in an unmarked grave in swampland. Today, she is one of the most renowned writers of African-American literature. As an educated Black female writer and anthropologist of the pre-Civil Rights era, Hurston fought battles that, whether she realized it or not, would influence the paths of the many other artists, dreamers, and fighters who succeeded her. 

Zora Neale Hurston’s Early Years

Hurston was born Zora Neale on January 7, 1891, in a small town in Alabama. Her family relocated soon after her birth to Eatonville, Florida: the nation’s first Black incorporated township. Hurston recounted her childhood as a happy one. The African American men and women that lived in Eatonville and made livelihoods that went against that era’s tide of segregation and racism acted as role models to the young Hurston. She believed that she, too, could accomplish something, and stuck to that belief: even when the realities of a much harsher life arrived when her mother passed away at age 13. Hurston’s father (whose work as a church pastor belied his faithless and affair-riddled marriage), quickly remarried to a woman that Hurston couldn’t stand. Hurston sought relief in work: first locally, then as a maid to a lead singer in a traveling acting troupe. At age of 26, Hurston found herself in Baltimore, still desiring the dream of success but without an education to support it. In order to qualify for the free public education necessary for graduating high school, Hurston claimed to be 10 years younger. She enrolled, graduated, and moved on to earn degrees from Howard University and Barnard University, respectively, never again revealing her real age. 

Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance

When Hurston moved to New York and enrolled in Barnard, she became a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In between socializing with such luminaries as poet Langston Hughes and the singer and actress Ethel Waters, Hurston began writing in earnest. Her first short story had already been published while she was a student at Howard University; her next success arrived in the publication of a story, a play, and two awards for her work in a popular contemporary magazine dedicated to sharing African American voices. Hurston had arrived: she knew it, she celebrated it, and she used her platform to expand upon her work, share her voice, and keep building. 

Snapshots of Hurston during this era portray a woman in her power. One of them entails her making a deliberately unforgettable entrance to an awards ceremony where she shouted the name of her play while swinging a colorful scarf; another is her famously writing: “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” Hurston married and divorced two men in quick succession; her next paramour became the basis for her most famous work, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

This novel was inspired directly by a love affair with a man 15 years Hurston’s junior. She wrote it during a seven-week stint in Haiti, which came on the tail end of leaving her love in New York to study voodoo in the Caribbean on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The novel broke boundaries that, at the time of publication, caused some to discard it. Instead of writing in a more mainstream style, Hurston employed the dialect that many Black writers shied away from, fearing that it pigeonholed African American culture. Hurston, however, skillfully elevated the nuances of African American speech to the level of masterpiece. By writing a story about Black people, for Black people, Hurston dared to place the mundane on a pedestal—an act that caused future generations to revere her work.

Alice Walker and the Revival of Hurston’s Legacy

One such person influenced by Hurston is Alice Walker. In 1975, Walker published a story in Ms. entitled, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston.” Claiming to be Hurston’s niece, Walker goes on a pilgrimage to discover her final resting home and resting place. Upon arriving at 1734 School Court Street (Hurston’s home address until it was relocated decades later), Walker described finding that:

“School Court Street is not paved, and the road is full of mud puddles. It is dismal and squalid, redeemed only by the brightness of the late afternoon sun. now I can understand what a “block” house is. It is a house shaped like a block, for one thing, surrounded by others just like it. Some houses are blue and some are green or yellow. Zora’s is light green. They are tiny—about 50 by 50 feet, squatty with flat roofs.”

This home was where Hurston quietly spent most of her last days. After the publication of “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Hurston’s writing career never achieved the same heights despite publishing several books that are now considered classics. She worked as a faculty member at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, traveled, and continued writing with varying publication success. Financial problems and a lawsuit involving sexual molestation allegations from a mentally ill 10-year-old boy contributed to Hurston’s downturn. In 1957, she moved to Fort Pierce, living in the block house (rent-free, upon the courtesy of a friend), until a stroke caused her to move into a nearby assisted living facility. When Hurston passed away in January of 1960, few people in her community recognized her achievements.

Walker’s essay revived public interest in Hurston. Nowadays, visitors to Fort Pierce can take tours to various Hurston-related locations that make explicit her enormous impact. Whether you choose to take a drive, read one of her books, or visit her now-marked grave, we hope you enjoy the world that Hurston helped create.