Tuesday
Sep302008
How Zora Neale Hurston Saved a Town
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 7:39AM The Blogmother
I was drawn by the photograph at the bottom of the NYTimes.com of Black women sitting in church and the title of the story In a Town Apart, the Pride and Trials of Black Life. It is the story of Eatonville,FL- the first Black town to incorporate in the United States. Zora Neale Hurston introduced the world to Eatonville and some of the townspeople were not all that happy about it.
For those who don't know, Hurston, who took some pretty mean spirited hits from Black male writers such as Richard Wright ( HATER!) ended up dying broke and being buried in an unmarked grave. She mostly went forgotten.
Oh but all that changed when the state decided to send a five lane highway directly through town.
Just thought y'all might get a kick out of that story.
For those who don't know, Hurston, who took some pretty mean spirited hits from Black male writers such as Richard Wright ( HATER!) ended up dying broke and being buried in an unmarked grave. She mostly went forgotten.
When Hurston died in 1960, she was poor and her books had fallen out of print. Along with much of the world, Eatonville seemed to have forgotten her.. Though she was once a literary star, a contemporary of Langston Hughes and the only black woman at Barnard College in the 1920s, she was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Fla., where she had been living.
In Eatonville, there were no major memorial services, no grand public readings. “I don’t think they understood her contribution to the world or her legacy at all,” said Valerie Boyd, author of “Wrapped in Rainbows,” a Hurston biography published in 2003. NY Times
Oh but all that changed when the state decided to send a five lane highway directly through town.
In 1975, the writer Alice Walker trekked to Hurston’s unmarked grave and began fighting to resurrect her reputation. Five years later, an acclaimed Hurston biography by Robert E. Hemenway hit bookshelves, reintroducing her to the American canon.
The highway project arrived just as Eatonville’s most famous daughter had once again found the spotlight. And this time, Hurston’s old neighbors saw her as a savior.
The community began planning in 1988 for a Hurston festival to show what the county could ruin with its highway. Thousands of fans came to the inaugural event two years later, and each January, many return for the celebration.
After several years, the county backed away from its road proposal. NY Times
Just thought y'all might get a kick out of that story.
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Reader Comments (13)
Richard Wright, a hater? No, no, no my friend. Throwing that woman down the elevator shaft was merely a literary device used to be contrasted against the white woman who was tossed into the furnace. At the end of the day, Bigger Thomas was still a criminal. Don't let Wright in this phase, who was speaking through Max, influence you. Wright, I believe, admits to a naievte in the when he created Cross Damon.
Al I was not referring to Wright's literature . I was referring to his reviews of Hurston's work. Look up what he wrote about her writing. He was swilling the hateraid by the bucket loaded.
"Okay, that's a fair point..."
-Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, the second half of the greatest sports radio team in modern times.
I used to wonder why Alice Walker's work is considered anti-man when Wright's Bigger committed far greater violence against black women than "Mister" ever did. Then I realized the difference. Wright's depiction of misogynist murder is just a literary device. When Walker writes about it she writes about it as a very serious crime against humanity. She makes the reader really FEEL what happens to the women. Walker doesn't employ black female suffering as a tool to get to a more "important" point. When the reader as to really think about the violence, it feels more like a critique of that violence.
I've been a fan of her writing since college with "Their Eyes Were Watching God".
rushing again but wanted to say thanks for the post. their eyes were watching god is a must read, will transport you, shake you like a storm, then set you down easy....
"Wright’s depiction of misogynist murder is just a literary device. When Walker writes about it she writes about it as a very serious crime against humanity. She makes the reader really FEEL what happens to the women..."
@tayari
Its amazing that you never mentioned Mary Dalton. Its her murder that sets the entire story in action. Are you suggesting that Wright's depiction of the murder of one woman is not as important as another?
Wow, I never thought of Wright's work as being misogynistic or anti black woman. I felt he was just trying to show the class/race disparity between Bigger's girlfriend and Mary by having one go down an elevator shaft in some non-descript ghetto building (poor) and the other being burned alive in a furnace in her own home (rich).
I happen to think Native Son had a greater, more important impact than Their Eyes...at least in terms of the general population. I enjoyed both, though, and still re-read from time to time.
As far as Wright's criticism of Hurston, I am no literary scholar but wasn't he saying that she was basically trying to appease whites by writing about simple negro folk and using non-standard dialect? I think i remember that from a college class or something.
Was he trying to silence and oppress her or just offering genuine criticism?I know others at the time did disagree with her use of dialect and felt that book didn't really have a theme.
"Wow, I never thought of Wright’s work as being misogynistic or anti black woman. I felt he was just trying to show the class/race disparity between Bigger’s girlfriend and Mary by having one go down an elevator shaft in some non-descript ghetto building (poor) and the other being burned alive in a furnace in her own home (rich)."
Exactly Huemanity. That was Wright's point. Too often people point out Bessie's death as an example of misogyny to the exclusion of the death of Mary. You have to consider both in order to have a "shot" at evaluating Wright's view of women in that particular novel. If anything, Wright had an angst towards organized religion and the way some women, like his grandmother, used religious dogma as a means of interpreting reality.
The criticism against Wright is as shortsighted and ignorant as the criticisms against Alice Walker in "The Color Purple".
Again, we are not discussing Wright's fictional literature. he was very negatively critical of HUrston's work. THen again, many black male writers were critical of her work during that time.
Hurston's work is important not only from a literal perspective but from an anthropological one as well. she did alot of field work that people are still finding.
Wright did speak disparagingly of Hurston's writing. As a person who had studied anthropology, Hurston had a great appreciation of black culture, including black's sermons, religion and speaking pattern. But people like Wright, Dubois, and others who were ashamed of black culture, spoke negatively of Hurston. This included the black press.
Margaret Walker, who did some of the research for Native Son, and who know Wright well, stated in the book she did with Nikki Giovanni that Wright hated black women. I believe her.
Hooray for Alice Walker, Hurston, and all those who helped!
once again comments section at WADD is on point! i am going to school on the perspectives per usual. might want to take a look at this link to a new film on Hurston.
http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0221