Andrew's Honor English 9 blog: Blog Post #2

Background Information

She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, in 1891 but was raised mainly in the town of Eatonville, Florida, which was the first incorporated all-black town in the United States.
In 1918, she began her college career at Howard University and founded the student newspaper, but she left to go to Barnard College in 1925, where she was the only black student.
She received a degree in anthropology at Barnard in 1927 when she was 36 years old and went to Columbia University to study with famous anthropoloist Franz Boas.
She visited the Carribbean and South America to see what the culture was like and many of her folklores were based off of the folklore customs of these areas.
Hurston's knowledge of her racial heritage and African American life was very influential on many writers during the Harlem Renaissance and helped many become famous.
She compiled many famous works, including Mules ans Men in 1935, which was a collection of African American folklores, and her most famous work, Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937.
She contriuted to the Harlem Renaissance by writing the famous short story "Spunk", which was selected for The New Negro, a collection of poetry and essays that focused on African American art and literature.
She was very vocal in addressing the issues with race and gender and she thought that blacks could find freedom in society.
Her work became unknown for decades for cultural reasons and many people opposed her work for the language she used to express the African Americans in her literature.
In 1960, Hurston was struggling finacially and physically and ended up dying from hypertensive heart disease in a nursing home in Fort Pierce, FL.