by Yasmin Gledhill
Zora Neale Hurston was a Black American folklorist and author. She became an key figure during the Harlem Renaissance and her works focused on the gendered and racial struggles of interwar America.
Her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), offered an important critique by contemplating racial identity and gender roles in early 20th century Florida. In turn, her essays and short stories were published in notable anthologies, such as Fire!! and The New Negro.
Despite her thoughtful and provocative writing, Hurston was overlooked at the time as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance until Alice Walker’s essay ‘Looking for Zora’ (1979) led to a resurgence in interest. Hurston’s career exemplified many of the challenges of being a Black woman in America. In particular, Hurston’s defiant, yet light-hearted autobiographical essay ‘How it Feels to Be Colored Me’ (1928) captured the essence of Hurston’s life and beliefs. She wrote:
“But I am not tragically colored […] I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong. 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 was an influential African-American author whose literary contributions have been obscured for too long. Hurston’s short stories, satires, essays and novels were seminal and deserve to be remembered for years to come.