Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Zora Neale Hurston grew up in the first incorporated black township in America and went on to become a pre-eminent black writer who influenced later generations.

Her lyrical novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” told of life as she saw and knew it, in a defining colloquial voice. It was later made into a film, and other novels and an autobiography followed, all told in dialect.

Despite her success, she ended her life in poverty and obscurity, even working as a maid in Florida in the 1950s. Now, she is once again being championed by today’s black writers, and has been cited as an inspiration and influence by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.