In this series, Listervelt Middleton talked with Dr. Sandra O’Neale about the accomplishments of Zora Neal Hurston and just who she was, in not getting the recognition and accolades that she deserves.
Dr. Sandra O’Neale discusses Zora Neal Hurston, stating that “She was a Black woman writer, novelist, anthropologist, folklorist, dramatist during the Harlem Renaissance period in this country.”
Dr. O'Neale states that Hurston published prolifically, from 1930-1950, her most famous novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," another novel, “Moses Man of the Mountain,” and "Jonah's Gourd Vine." She published the first extensive and authentic collection of Black folklore, American Black folklore called “Mules and Men”. She put on several plays throughout the south; folk plays, putting together various reviews, song, dance; and spirituals. Published the Eatonvtille Anthology; stories and Folklore Collections that she had head as a child. Did the first Authentic Anthropological Report on the Voodoo Experience in America and the Caribbean in a book called “Tell My Horse.” She was extensively well-written.
Zora was born in a small all-Black town called Eatonville, Florida, in the Western part of the state. Up until she was 9 years old, she only knew Black leadership, socially, economically, politically. She saw Black role models before her continually; she went to an all-Black school system where teachers demanded excellence of her. Her father was the mayor of the town and pastored a large Baptist church. Her mother spent all of her time, every evening, teaching Zora and her several other brothers and sisters math, grammar, and exposing her to literature from around the world.
Listervelt Middleton: “You said she didn’t think too much of integration. Why?”
Dr. Sandra O’Neale: Precisely because of this Eatonville upbringing. She felt it was an insult to say that Black children could not get a proper education unless they went to school with whites. She knew such security as a child from Eatonville that she could not relate to other Blacks who had grown up always in a shadow of inferiority towards whites in an integrated...or at least in a community where whites were always making value judgments about Black life. She had never known that. She expected and knew that Black was beautiful from the day that she was born."
View the full interview for more on Hurston's life and career.
View the second part of this interview here.
Dr. O'Neale died on September 8, 2025.
