LIVING HISTORY
REVIVING ZORA’S
Hurston was known for her short stories and essays. She published several books while alive and her works continue to be released posthumously.
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LEGACY
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
A foundation is working to open a community
center that will pay tribute to writer Zora
Neale Hurston and her time in Fort Pierce
BY RACHEL CUCCURULLO
When Zora Neale Hurston set off to begin her
ethnographic field studies, she was a single
black woman. Her extensive travels began in
the late 1920s, during a time of racial turmoil
and inequality.
“This was a dangerous time for people of color in the
heavily segregated South, especially a woman of color,
traveling alone,’’ said Marvin Hobson, president of the
Zora Neale Hurston Florida Education Foundation and
associate professor of English and modern languages at Indian
River State College. “Many don’t know this, but Zora
always traveled with a loaded hand gun. She had to.”
Hurston started her studies at the historically black
Howard University in Washington, D.C., and with a
scholarship, transferred to Barnard College of Columbia
University. She was the only black student and studied
under anthropologist Franz Boa.
From 1927 to 1932, Hurston conducted research in the
Deep South. She would collect material on black culture,
folklore, music, literature and more. She later traveled to >>