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Zora Neale Hurston is born!
She was born in Notasulga, AL -
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The Life and Works of Ms. Zora Neale Hurston
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Eatonville
Ms. Hurston's family moved to Eatonville, the city where many of her great short stories are set. -
Zora's mother dies
Zora's mother, Lucy Potts Hurston, dies. She would always tell her children to "jump at da sun." -
Education
She moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she could enroll in school and get a free public school education. She lied about her age, claiming she was 10 years younger. -
College
She enrolls in Howard University, Washington, D.C. -
How it Feels to be Colored Me
Her essay "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" appears in The World Tomorrow. -
Their Eyes Weere Watching God
Her Guggenheim fellowship extended, Hurston continues her research in Haiti. While there, she writes Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks. She returns to the United States shortly before the 18 September publication of the novel. -
Tell My Horse
Hurston writes and publishes Tell My Horse, an account of West Indian obeah practices based on her research. -
Federal Writers' Project
Hurston is hired by the Federal Writers' Project to record African-American culture in Florida. Later in the year she accepts a position as a drama instructor at North Carolina College for Negroes. Her novel Moses, Man of the Mountain is published. -
Dust Tracks on a Road, a memoir
Her memoir Dust Tracks on a Road is published to critical praise. It receives the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for its take on race relations. -
Hard Times
A financially strapped Hurston takes a job as a maid in Florida. She continues to publish well-regarded essays in the Saturday Evening Post and other publications. -
Death
Zora Neale Hurston dies of hypertensive heart disease at the St. Lucie County Welfare Home. Penniless and alone at the time of her death, her neighbors take up a collection to pay for her funeral. She is buried in an unmarked grave. -
Rediscovery!
Intrigued by Hurston's life story, the writer Alice Walker locates the site of her grave and purchases a headstone for it. The inscription reads "Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South."