Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7th, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, but in her later life, she clamed she was born in Eastonville, Florida. She was the fifth of eight children. Zora had a happy childhood despite her disagreements with her father who sought out to crush her rambunctious spirit. “Jump at de sun” were the words that Zora’s mother, Lucy reminded her while she was being put down by her father. Hurston’s mother died in 1904 and her father quickly remarried. Her stepmother and father sent Zora away to boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. Zora was sent away because she almost killed her step mother in a fistfight. Eventually, Zora’s parents stopped paying Zora’s tuition and she was expelled. Hurston began making an income by joinining a Gilbert & Sullivan traveling group as a maid to the lead singer. By the time she was twenty-six, she still had not completed high school. Therefore, she went to Baltimore to finish school. In order to qualify for free public schooling, she lied about her age and said she was born in 1901. In 1917, she attended Morgan Academy and graduated the next year. Later, she was educated at Howard University and received her associate degree in anthropology in 1920. She was one of the earliest founders of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority at Howard University. While studying during her college years, Hurston worked many jobs such as a manicurist to a maid, yet she was quite often in debt. She was offered a scholarship to Barnard College where she became the colleges only black student. In the late 1920’s, she studied under an anthropologist, Dr. Franz Boas at Columbia University. She practiced her anthropological research in places like the Caribbean and South America. In 1927 She married a man named Herbert Sheen, but the marriage ended a few years later. She was married again to a man named Albert Price, but that marriage only lasted a few months. While perusing her literary career, Hurston was on the staff of North Carolina College for Negroes. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston’s most famous work was published in 1937. Hurston suffered a stroke and died of hypertensive heart disease on January 28th, 1960.
