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Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

American Experience presents a new biography of the trailblazing writer and anthropologist

  • Christina Zeiders
Zora Neale Hurston

 Library of Congress

Zora Neale Hurston

American Experience’s Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space is an in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender, and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.

Watch the premiere of Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space Tuesday, January 17 at 9pm on WITF TV or stream it for free until February 15 using the PBS Video app.

Raised in the small, all-Black Florida town of Easton, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would become a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Hurston is best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, but as she gained prominence in the Harlem literacy circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas.

She would travel several times to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She became the foremost authority on Black folklore.

She immersed herself in the worlds she was studying to build trust. She interviewed Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known surviving Africans of the slave ship Clotilda, collected folklore at lumber camps, phosphate mines, and turpentine distilleries, and studied “hoodoo” in New Orleans.

Her techniques paid off, yielding a plethora of material, which Hurston turned into a series of papers, plays, and stories. She had been published twice in the Journal of American Folk-Lore by 1932.

Black and white photo showing Zora Neale Hurston plays with children in Eastonville, FL.

Library of Congress

Zora Neale Hurston plays with children in Eatonville, Florida. This photo was taken during the Lomax-Hurston-Barnicle recording expedition to Georgia, Florida and the Bahamas. June 1935.

Watch Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space Tuesday, January 17 at 9pm on WITF TV or stream it for free until February 15 using the PBS Video app. Get more time to stream with WITF Passport.

Two Guggenheim fellowships made it possible for Hurston to travel to Haiti and Jamaica in 1936 to focus on her literary and scientific work. In Haiti, she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, mixing memory, fiction, and research. By 1938, she published Tell My Horse, her second ethnographic book.

Despite her success, the end of Hurston’s life was marked by money difficulties and a multitude of setbacks. In 1942, she published her autobiographical book Dust Tracks on a Road to make ends meet. The book established her as a literary celebrity, but she still struggled financially. She eventually landed in the Black community of Fort Pierce, Florida, where she worked a series of odd jobs.

On January 28, 1960, Zora Neale Hurston died in near obscurity following a stroke at the age of 69. Although she’s now celebrated as a great literary figure, her work in anthropology and her role in elevating Black culture and folklore is only now being fully appreciated.

Watch American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space Tuesday, January 17 at 9pm on WITF TV or stream it for free until February 15 using the PBS Video app. You can get more time to stream by joining WITF Passport. Learn more at witf.org/passport.


PBS Books is hosting an Author Talk with Genevieve West, Ph. D., Monica Miller, Ph. D., and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ph. D. on Thursday, January 12 at 8pm, ahead of the American Experience premiere. Set a reminder on YouTube!

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