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- By Zora Neale Hurston
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American author, anthropologist, filmmaker (1891–1960) Zora Neale HurstonHurston in c. 1935–43Born(1891-01-07)January 7, 1891Notasulga, Alabama, U.S.DiedJanuary 28, 1960(1960-01-28) (aged 69)Fort Pierce, Florida, U.S.EducationHoward UniversityBarnard College (BA)Columbia UniversityOccupationsAuthoranthropologistfilmmakerPolitical partyRepublicanSpouses Herbert Sheen ​ ​(m. 1927; div. 1931)​ Albert Price ​ ​(m. 1939; div. 1943)​ James Howell Pitts ​ ​(m. 1944; div. 1944)​Writing careerPeriodc. 1925–1950Literary movementThe Harlem RenaissanceNotable worksTheir Eyes Were Watching GodSignature Websitezoranealehurston.com Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891[1]: 17 [2]: 5  – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou.[3] The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote over 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research as a scholar at Barnard College and Columbia University.[4] She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity. She also wrote about contemporary issues in the black community and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!![5] After moving back to Florida, Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935), and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939).[6] Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti. Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades. In 1975, fifteen years after Hurston's death, interest in her work was revived after author Alice Walker published an article, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (later retitled "Looking for Zora"), in the March issue of Ms. magazine that year.[7][8] Then, in 2001, Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess, a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo", about the life of Cudjoe Lewis (Kossola), was published in 2018. Biography[edit] Early life and education[edit] Hurston was the fifth of eight children of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston (née Potts). All four of her grandparents had been born into slavery. Her father was a Baptist preacher and sharecropper, who later became a carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891, where her father grew up and her paternal grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church.[1]: 14–17, 439–440 [2]: 8  When she was three, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida. In 1887, it was one of the first all-black towns incorporated in the United States.[9] Hurston said that Eatonville was "home" to her, as she was so young when she moved there. Sometimes she claimed it as her birthplace.[1]: 25  A few years later, her father was elected as mayor of the town in 1897. In 1902 he was called to serve as minister of its largest church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist. As an adult, Hurston often used Eatonville as a setting in her stories—it was a place where African Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society. In 1901, some northern school teachers had visited Eatonville and given Hurston several books that opened her mind to literature. She later described this personal literary awakening as a kind of "birth".[10]: 3–4  Hurston lived for the rest of her childhood in Eatonville and described the experience of growing up there in her 1928 essay, "How It Feels To Be Colored Me". Eatonville now holds an annual "Zora! Festival" in her honor.[11] Hurston's mother died in 1904, and her father married Mattie Moge in 1905.[12][13] This was considered scandalous, as it was rumored that he had had sexual relations with Moge before his first wife's death.[1]: 52  Hurston's father and stepmother sent her to a Baptist boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida, but she was dismissed after they stopped paying her tuition. Work and study[edit] In 1916, Hurston was employed as a maid by the lead singer of a touring Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical company.[12][14] In 1917, she resumed her formal education, attending Morgan College, the high school division of Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. At this time, apparently to qualify for a free high-school education, the 26-year-old Hurston began claiming 1901 as her year of birth.[12][15] She graduated from the high school in 1918.[16] College and slightly after[edit] In college, Hurston learned how to view life through an anthropological lens apart from Eatonville. One of her main goals was to show similarities between ethnicities.[17] In 1918, Hurston began her studies at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC. She was one of the first members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, founded by and for black women, and she co-founded The Hilltop, the university's student newspaper.[18] She took courses in Spanish, English, Greek, and public speaking, and earned an associate degree in 1920.[10]: 4  In 1921, she wrote a short story, "John Redding Goes to Sea", that qualified her to become a member of Alain Locke's literary club, The Stylus. Hurston left Howard in 1924, and in 1925 was offered a scholarship by Barnard trustee Annie Nathan Meyer[19] to Barnard College of Columbia University, a women's college, where she was the sole black student.[20]: 210  Hurston assisted Meyer in crafting the play Black Souls; which is considered one of the first "lynching dramas" written by a white woman.[21] She conducted ethnographic research with anthropologist Franz Boas of Columbia University and later studied with him as a graduate student. She also worked with Ruth Benedict and fellow anthropology student Margaret Mead.[22] Hurston received her B.A. in anthropology in 1928.[23] Alain Locke recommended Hurston to Charlotte Osgood Mason, a philanthropist and literary patron who had supported Locke and other African-American authors, such as Langston Hughes; however, she also tried to direct their work. Mason became interested in Hurston's work and supported her travel in the South for research from 1927 to 1932[1]: 157  with a stipend of $200 per month. In return, she wanted Hurston to give her all the material she collected about Negro music, folklore, literature, hoodoo, and other forms of culture. At the same time, Hurston needed to satisfy Boas as her academic adviser. Boas was a cultural relativist who wanted to overturn ideas about ranking cultures in a hierarchy of values.[24] After graduating from Barnard, Hurston spent two years as a graduate student in anthropology, working with Boas at Columbia University.[23] Living in Harlem in the 1920s, Hurston befriended writers including Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings. Around this time, Hurston had a few literary successes, placing in short-story and playwriting contests in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, published by the National Urban League. Marriages[edit] In 1927, Hurston married Herbert Sheen, a jazz musician and a former teacher at Howard; he later became a physician. Their marriage ended in 1931. In 1935, Hurston was involved with Percy Punter, a graduate student at Columbia University. He inspired the character of Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God.[25][13] In 1939, while Hurston was working for the WPA in Florida, she married Albert Price. The marriage ended after a few months,[20]: 211  but they did not divorce until 1943. The following year, Hurston married James Howell Pitts of Cleveland. That marriage, too, lasted less than a year.[2]: 27 [1]: 373  Hurston twice lived in a cottage in Eau Gallie, Florida: in 1929 and again in 1951.[26] Patronage and support[edit] When foundation grants ended during the Great Depression, Hurston and her friend Langston Hughes both relied on the patronage of philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, a white literary patron.[27][28][29] During the 1930s, Hurston was a resident of Westfield, New Jersey, a suburb of New York, where her friend Hughes was among her neighbors.[27][28][29] Academic institutions[edit] In 1934, Hurston established a school of dramatic arts "based on pure Negro expression" at Bethune-Cookman University (at the time, Bethune-Cookman College), a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida.[30] In 1956, Hurston received the Bethune-Cookman College Award for Education and Human Relations in recognition of her achievements. The English Department at Bethune-Cookman College remains dedicated to preserving her cultural legacy.[31] In later life, in addition to continuing her literary career, Hurston served on the faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham.[23] Anthropological and folkloric fieldwork[edit] Hurston traveled extensively in the Caribbean and the American South and immersed herself in local cultural practices to conduct her anthropological research. Based on her work in the South, sponsored from 1928 to 1932 by Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy philanthropist, Hurston wrote Mules and Men in 1935.[1]: 157  She was researching lumber camps in north Florida and commented on the practice of white men in power taking black women as concubines, including having them bear children. This practice later was referred to as "paramour rights", based on the men's power under racial segregation and related to practices during slavery times. The book also includes much folklore. Hurston drew from this material as well in the fictional treatment she developed for her novels such as Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934).[1]: 246–247  In 1935, Hurston traveled to Georgia and Florida with Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle for research on African American song traditions and their relationship to slave and African antecedent music. She was tasked with selecting the geographic areas and contacting the research subjects.[32][failed verification] Hurston playing a hountar, or mama drum, 1937 In 1936 and 1937, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti for research, with support from the Guggenheim Foundation. She drew from this research for Tell My Horse (1938), a genre-defying book that mixes anthropology, folklore, and personal narrative.[33] In 1938 and 1939, Hurston worked for the Federal Writer's Project (FWP), part of the Works Progress Administration.[1] Hired for her experience as a writer and folklorist, she gathered information to add to Florida's historical and cultural collection.[1] From May 1947 to February 1948, Hurston lived in Honduras, in the north coastal town of Puerto Cortés. She had some hopes of locating either Mayan ruins or vestiges of an undiscovered civilization.[1]: 375–387  While in Puerto Cortés, she wrote much of Seraph on the Suwanee, set in Florida. Hurston expressed interest in the polyethnic nature of the population in the region (many, such as the Miskito Zambu and Garifuna, were of partial African ancestry and had developed creole cultures). Hurston in Florida on an anthropological research trip, 1935 During her last decade, Hurston worked as a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. In the fall of 1952, she was contacted by Sam Nunn, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, to go to Florida to cover the murder trial of Ruby McCollum. McCollum was charged with murdering the white Dr. C. Leroy Adams, who was also a politician. McCollum said he had forced her to have sex and bear his child.[34] Hurston recalled what she had seen of white male sexual dominance in the lumber camps in North Florida, and discussed it with Nunn. They both thought the case might be about such "paramour rights", and wanted to "expose it to a national audience".[34] Upon reaching Live Oak, Hurston was surprised not only by the gag order the judge in the trial placed on the defense but by her inability to get residents in town to talk about the case; both blacks and whites were silent. She believed that might have been related to Dr. Adams' alleged involvement in the gambling operation of Ruby's husband Sam McCollum. Her articles were published by the newspaper during the trial. Ruby McCollum was convicted by an all-male, all-white jury, and sentenced to death. Hurston had a special assignment to write a serialized account, The Life Story of Ruby McCollum, over three months in 1953 in the newspaper.[35] Her part was ended abruptly when she and Nunn disagreed about her pay, and she left.[34] Unable to pay independently to return for the appeal and second trial, Hurston contacted journalist William Bradford Huie, with whom she had worked at The American Mercury, to try to interest him in the case. He covered the appeal and second trial, and also developed material from a background investigation. Hurston shared her material with him from the first trial, but he acknowledged her only briefly in his book, Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), which became a bestseller.[36] Hurston celebrated that "McCollum's testimony in her own defense marked the first time that a woman of African-American descent was allowed to testify as to the paternity of her child by a white man. Hurston firmly believed that Ruby McCollum's testimony sounded the death toll of 'paramour rights' in the Segregationist South."[34] Among other positions, Hurston later worked at the Pan American World Airways Technical Library at Patrick Air Force Base in 1956. She was fired for being "too well-educated" for her job in 1957.[37] She moved to Fort Pierce, Florida. Taking jobs where she could find them, Hurston worked occasionally as a substitute teacher. At age 60, Hurston had to fight "to make ends meet" with the help of public assistance. At one point she worked as a maid on Miami Beach's Rivo Alto Island. Death[edit] During a period of financial and medical difficulties, Hurston was forced to enter St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where she had a stroke. She died of hypertensive heart disease on January 28, 1960, and was buried at the Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce, Florida. Her remains were in an unmarked grave until 1973.[38] Novelist Alice Walker and fellow Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt found an unmarked grave in the general area where Hurston had been buried; they decided to mark it as hers.[39] Walker commissioned a gray marker inscribed with "ZORA NEALE HURSTON / A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960."[40] The line "a genius of the south" is from Jean Toomer's poem, "Georgia Dusk", which appears in his book Cane.[40] Hurston was born in 1891, not 1901.[1][2] After Hurston's death, a yardman, who had been told to clean the house, was burning Hurston's papers and belongings. A law officer and friend, Patrick DuVal, passing by the house where she had lived, stopped and put out the fire, thus saving an invaluable collection of literary documents for posterity. For two years, he stored them on his covered porch until he and a group of Hurston's friends could find an archive to take the material. [citation needed] The nucleus of this collection was given to the University of Florida libraries in 1961 by Mrs. Marjorie Silver, a friend, and neighbor of Hurston. Within the collection is a manuscript and photograph of Seraph on the Suwanee and an unpublished biography of Herod the Great. Luckily, she donated some of her manuscripts to the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Yale University.[41] Other materials were donated in 1970 and 1971 by Frances Grover, daughter of E. O. Grover, a Rollins College professor and long-time friend of Hurston's. In 1979, Stetson Kennedy of Jacksonville, who knew Hurston through his work with the Federal Writers Project, added additional papers (Zora Neale Hurston Papers, University of Florida Smathers Libraries, August 2008). Literary career[edit] When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its zenith, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. Shortly before she entered Barnard, Hurston's short story "Spunk" was selected for The New Negro, a landmark anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays focusing on African and African-American art and literature.[42] In 1926, a group of young black writers including Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Thurman, calling themselves the Niggerati, produced a literary magazine called Fire!! that featured many of the young artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1927, Hurston traveled to the Deep South to collect African-American folk tales. She also interviewed Cudjoe Kazzola Lewis, of Africatown, Alabama, who was the last known survivor of the enslaved Africans carried aboard Clotilda, an illegal slave ship that had entered the US in 1860, and thus the last known person to have been transported in the Transatlantic slave trade. The next year she published the article "Cudjoe's Own Story of the Last African Slaver" (1928). According to her biographer Robert E. Hemenway, this piece largely plagiarized the work of Emma Langdon Roche,[43] an Alabama writer who wrote about Lewis in a 1914 book. Hurston did add new information about daily life in Lewis' home village of Bantè.[44] Hurston intended to publish a collection of several hundred folk tales from her field studies in the South. She wanted to have them be as close to the original as possible but struggled to balance the expectations of her academic adviser, Franz Boas, and her patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. This manuscript was not published at the time. A copy was later found at the Smithsonian archives among the papers of anthropologist William Duncan Strong, a friend of Boas. Hurston's Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States was published posthumously in 2001 as Every Tongue Got to Confess.[45] In 1928, Hurston returned to Alabama with additional resources; she conducted more interviews with Lewis, took photographs of him and others in the community, and recorded the only known film footage of him—an African who had been trafficked to the United States through the slave trade. Based on this material, she wrote a manuscript, Barracoon, completing it in 1931. Hemenway described it as "a highly dramatic, semifictionalized narrative intended for the popular reader."[46][47] It has also been described as a "testimonial text", more in the style of other anthropological studies since the late 20th century. After this round of interviews, Hurston's literary patron, philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, learned of Lewis and began to send him money for his support.[47] Lewis was also interviewed by journalists for local and national publications.[48] Hurston's manuscript Barracoon was eventually published posthumously on May 8, 2018.[49][50] "Barracoon", or barracks in Spanish, is where captured Africans were temporarily imprisoned before being shipped abroad.[50] In 1929, Hurston moved to Eau Gallie, Florida, where she wrote Mules and Men. It was published in 1935.[51] 1930s[edit] By the mid-1930s, Hurston had published several short stories and the critically acclaimed Mules and Men (1935), a groundbreaking work of "literary anthropology" documenting African-American folklore from timber camps in North Florida. In 1930, she collaborated with Langston Hughes on Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life, a play that they never staged. Their collaboration caused their friendship to fall apart.[52] The play was first staged in 1991.[23] Hurston adapted her anthropological work for the performing arts. Her folk revue The Great Day featured authentic African song and dance, and premiered at the John Golden Theatre in New York in January 1932.[53] Despite positive reviews, it had only one performance. The Broadway debut left Hurston in $600 worth of debt. No producers wanted to move forward with a full run of the show. During the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston produced two other musical revues, From Sun to Sun, which was a revised adaptation of The Great Day, and Singing Steel. Hurston had a strong belief that folklore should be dramatized. Hurston's first three novels were published in the 1930s: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), written during her fieldwork in Haiti and considered her masterwork; and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). In 1937, Hurston was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct ethnographic research in Jamaica and Haiti.[54] Tell My Horse (1938) documents her account of her fieldwork studying spiritual and cultural rituals in Jamaica and vodoun in Haiti. 1940s and 1950s[edit] Neale Hurston in 1938, photographed by Carl Van Vechten In the 1940s, Hurston's work was published in such periodicals as The American Mercury and The Saturday Evening Post. Her last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, notable principally for its focus on white characters, was published in 1948. It explores images of "white trash" women. Jackson (2000) argues that Hurston's meditation on abjection, waste, and the construction of class and gender identities among poor whites reflects the eugenics discourses of the 1920s.[55] In 1952, Hurston was assigned by the Pittsburgh Courier to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local bolita racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. She also contributed to Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), a book by journalist and civil rights advocate William Bradford Huie. Posthumous publications[edit] Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess (2001), a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published posthumously after being discovered in Smithsonian archives.[45] In 2008, The Library of America selected excerpts from Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), to which Hurston had contributed, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American true crime writing. Hurston's nonfiction book Barracoon was published in 2018.[50] A barracoon is a type of barracks where slaves were imprisoned before being taken overseas.[50] Spiritual views[edit] In Chapter XV of Dust Tracks on a Road, entitled "Religion", Hurston expressed disbelief in and disdain for both theism and religious belief.[56] She states: Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws.[57] However, though clearly an atheist who firmly rejected the Baptist beliefs of her preacher father, she retained an interest in religion from anthropological and literary standpoints. She investigated voodoo, going so far as to participate in rituals alongside her research subjects. In another of her original uncensored notes for her autobiography shares her admiration for Biblical characters like King David: "He was a man after God's own heart, and was quite serviceable in helping God get rid of no-count rascals who were cluttering up the place."[58] Public obscurity[edit] Hurston's work slid into obscurity for decades, for both cultural and political reasons. The use of African-American dialect, as featured in Hurston's novels, became less popular. Younger writers felt that it was demeaning to use such dialect, given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature. Also, Hurston had made stylistic choices in dialogue influenced by her academic studies. Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period, which she had documented through ethnographic research.[59] Several of Hurston's literary contemporaries criticized her use of dialect, saying that it was a caricature of African-American culture and was rooted in a post-Civil War, white racist tradition. These writers, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, criticized Hurston's later work as not advancing the movement. Richard Wright, in his review of Their Eyes Were Watching God, said: The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She exploits that phase of Negro life which is "quaint," the phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the "superior" race.[60] But since the late 20th century, there has been a revival of interest in Hurston.[33] Critics have since praised her skillful use of idiomatic speech.[61] During the 1930s and 1940s, when her work was published, the pre-eminent African-American author was Richard Wright, a former Communist.[62] Unlike Hurston, Wright wrote in explicitly political terms. He had become disenchanted with Communism, but he used the struggle of African Americans for respect and economic advancement as both the setting and the motivation for his work. Other popular African-American authors of the time, such as Ralph Ellison, dealt with the same concerns as Wright albeit in ways more influenced by Modernism. Hurston, who at times evinced conservative attitudes, was on the other side of the disputes over the promise of leftist politics for African-Americans.[63] In 1951, for example, Hurston argued that New Deal economic support had created a harmful dependency by African Americans on the government and that this dependency ceded too much power to politicians.[64] Despite increasing difficulties, Hurston maintained her independence and a determined optimism. She wrote in a 1957 letter: But ... I have made phenomenal growth as a creative artist. ... I am not materialistic ... If I do happen to die without money, somebody will bury me, though I do not wish it to be that way.[65] Posthumous recognition[edit] Zora Neale Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, Florida, celebrates her life annually in Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities.[66] It is home to the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts, and a library named for her opened in January 2004. The Zora Neale Hurston House in Fort Pierce has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. The city celebrates Hurston annually through various events such as Hattitudes, birthday parties, and the several-day event at the end of April known as Zora! Festival.[11][67] Author Alice Walker sought to identify Hurston's unmarked grave in 1973. She installed a grave marker inscribed with "A Genius of the South".[68][69][70] Alice Walker published "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in the March 1975 issue of Ms. magazine, reviving interest in Hurston's work.[71][72] In 1991, Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life, a 1930 play by Langston Hughes and Hurston, was first staged; it was staged in New York City by the Lincoln Center Theater. In 1994, Hurston was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[73] In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Zora Neale Hurston on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[74] Barnard College dedicated its 2003 Virginia C. Gildersleeve Conference to Hurston. 'Jumpin' at the Sun': Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston focused on her work and influence.[75] Alice Walker's Gildersleeve lecture detailed her work on discovering and publicizing Hurston's legacy.[76] The Zora Neale Hurston Award was established in 2008; it is awarded to an American Library Association member who has "demonstrated leadership in promoting African American literature".[77] Hurston was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2010. The novel Harlem Mosaics (2012) by Whit Frazier depicts the friendship between Langston Hughes and Hurston and tells the story of how their friendship fell apart during their collaboration on the 1930 play Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life.[52] On January 7, 2014, the 123rd anniversary of Hurston's birthday was commemorated by a Google Doodle.[78][79] She was one of twelve inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame on June 8, 2015.[80] An excerpt from her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road was recited in the documentary film August 28: A Day in the Life of a People, directed by Ava DuVernay, which debuted at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.[81][82][83] Hurston was honored in a play written and performed by students at Indian River Charter High School in October 2017, January 2018, and January 2019. The play was based on letters written between Hurston and Vero Beach entrepreneur, architect and pioneer Waldo E. Sexton.[84][85] She is the subject of the documentary film Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space which first aired on American Experience on January 17, 2023.[86] Zora's Daughters is a podcast hosted by Alyssa A.L. James and Brendane Tynes, who "follow in the legacy of Hurston and other Black women ethnographers".[87] Political views[edit] Hurston was a Republican who aligned herself with the politics of the Old Right and she was also a supporter of Booker T. Washington. Although she once stated her support for the "complete repeal of All Jim Crow Laws", she was a contrarian on civil rights activism and she generally lacked interest in being associated with it.[88] In 1951, she criticized the New Deal by arguing that it had created a harmful dependency on the government among African Americans and she also argued that this dependency ceded too much power to politicians.[64] She criticized communism in her 1951 essay titled Why the Negro won't Buy Communism and she also accused communists of exploiting African-Americans for their own personal gain. In her 1938 review of Richard Wright's short-story collection Uncle Tom's Children, she criticized his communist beliefs and the Communist Party USA for supporting "state responsibility for everything and individual responsibility for nothing, not even feeding one's self". Her views on communism, the New Deal, civil rights, and other topics contrasted with the views of many of her colleagues during the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes, who was a supporter of the Soviet Union and praised it in several of his poems during the 1930s. John McWhorter has called Hurston a conservative, stating that she is "America's favorite black conservative".[88][89] David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito have argued that she can be characterized as a libertarian, comparing her to Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson, two female libertarian novelists who were her contemporaries and are known as the "founding mothers" of American libertarianism.[90] Russell A. Berman of the Hoover Institution described her as a "heterodox and staunchly libertarian thinker".[91] The libertarian magazine Reason praised her, claiming: "What Hurston wanted, in both life and literature, was for everyone, of every race, for better or worse, to be viewed as an individual first."[92] In response to black writers who criticized her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God because it did not explore racial themes, she stated: "I am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones".[93] She criticized what she described as "Race Pride and Race Consciousness", describing it as a "thing to be abhorred", stating: Suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer was a Negro. Must I not also go hang my head in shame when a member of my race does something execrable? The white race did not go into a laboratory and invent incandescent light. That was Edison. If you are under the impression that every white man is an Edison, just look around a bit. If you have the idea that every Negro is a [George Washington] Carver, you had better take off plenty of time to do your searching.[92] Although her personal quotes show disbelief of religion, Hurston did not negate spiritual matters as evidenced from her 1942 autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road: Prayer seems to be a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws. The ever-sleepless sea in its bed, crying out "how long?" to Time; million-formed and never motionless flame; the contemplation of these two aspects alone, affords me sufficient food for ten spans of my expected lifetime. It seems to me that organized creeds are collections of words around a wish. I feel no need for such. However, I would not, by word or deed, attempt to deprive another of the consolation it affords. It is simply not for me. Somebody else may have my rapturous glance at the archangels. The springing of the yellow line of the morning out of the misty deep of dawn is glory enough for me. I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was when the earth was hurled out from its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is the matter, ever-changing, ever-moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe does not need finger-rings. I am one with the infinite and need no other assurance.[94] In 1952, Hurston supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert A. Taft. Like Taft, Hurston was against Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies. She also shared his opposition to Roosevelt and Truman's interventionist foreign policy. In the original draft of her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, Hurston compared the United States government to a "fence" in stolen goods and a Mafia-like protection racket. Hurston thought it ironic that the same "people who claim that it is a noble thing to die for freedom and democracy... wax frothy if anyone points out the inconsistency of their morals... We, too, consider machine gun bullets good laxatives for heathens who get constipated with toxic ideas about a country of their own." She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad but denied it to people in their home countries: Roosevelt "can call names across an ocean" for his Four Freedoms, but he did not have "the courage to speak even softly at home."[95] When Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Japan she called him "the Butcher of Asia".[90] Hurston opposed the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954. She felt that if separate schools were truly equal (and she believed that they were rapidly becoming so), educating black students in physical proximity to white students would not result in better education. Also, she worried about the demise of black schools and black teachers as a way to pass on the cultural tradition to future generations of African Americans. She voiced this opposition in a letter, "Court Order Can't Make the Races Mix", that was published in the Orlando Sentinel in August 1955. Hurston had not reversed her long-time opposition to segregation. Rather, she feared that the Court's ruling could become a precedent for an all-powerful federal government to undermine individual liberty on a broad range of issues in the future.[96] Hurston also opposed preferential treatment for African-Americans, saying: If I say a whole system must be upset for me to win, I am saying that I cannot sit in the game and that safer rules must be made to give me a chance. I repudiate that. If others are in there, deal me a hand and let me see what I can make of it, even though I know some in there are dealing from the bottom and cheating like hell in other ways.[89] Criticism[edit] Integration[edit] Hurston appeared to oppose integration based on pride and her sense of independence. She would not "bow low before the white man", and claimed "adequate Negro schools" already existed in 1955.[97] Hurston is described as a "trailblazer for black women's empowerment" because of her numerous individual achievements and her strong belief that black women could be "self-made". However, a common criticism of her work is that the vagueness of her racial politics in her writing, particularly about black feminism, makes her "a prime candidate for white intellectual idolatry."[98] Darwin T. Turner, an English professor and specialist in African-American literature, faulted Hurston in 1971 for opposing integration and for opposing programs to guarantee blacks the right to work.[99] Research and representation[edit] Some authors criticized Hurston for her sensationalist representation of voodoo.[100] In The Crisis magazine in 1943, Harold Preece criticized Hurston for her perpetuation of "Negro primitivism" in order to advance her own literary career.[101] The Journal of Negro History complained that her work on voodoo was an indictment of African-American ignorance and superstition.[102] Jeffrey Anderson states that Hurston's research methods were questionable and that she fabricated material for her works on voodoo. He observed that she admitted to inventing dialogue for her book Mules and Men in a letter to Ruth Benedict and described fabricating the Mules and Men story of rival voodoo doctors as a child in her later autobiography. Anderson believes that many of Hurston's other claims in her voodoo writings are dubious as well.[103] Several authors have contended that Hurston engaged in significant plagiarism, and her biographer Robert Hemenway argues that the article "Cudjo's Own Story of the Last African Slaver" (1927) was approximately 25% original, the rest being plagiarized from Emma Langdon Roche's Historic Sketches of the Old South.[104] Hemenway does not claim that this undermines the validity of her later fieldwork: he states that Hurston "never plagiarized again; she became a major folklore collector".[105] Selected bibliography[edit] "Journey's End" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Night" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Passion" (Negro World, 1922), poetry Color Struck (Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, 1925), play Muttsy (Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life) 1926, short story. "Sweat" (1926), short story "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928), essay "Hoodoo in America" (1931) in The Journal of American Folklore "The Gilded Six-Bits" (1933), short story Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), novel Mules and Men (1935), non-fiction Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), novel Tell My Horse (1938), non-fiction Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), novel Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), autobiography Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), novel "What White Publishers Won't Print" (Negro Digest, 1950) I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader (Alice Walker, ed.; 1979) The Sanctified Church (1981) Spunk: Selected Stories (1985) Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life (play, with Langston Hughes; edited with introductions by George Houston Bass and Henry Louis Gates Jr.; 1991) The Complete Stories (introduction by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sieglinde Lemke; 1995) Novels & Stories: Jonah's Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Seraph on the Suwanee, Selected Stories (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.; Library of America, 1995) ISBN 978-0-940450-83-7 Folklore, Memoirs, & Other Writings: Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles (Cheryl A. Wall, ed.; Library of America, 1995) ISBN 978-0-940450-84-4 Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States (2001) Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, collected and edited by Carla Kaplan (2003) Collected Plays (2008) Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" (2018) Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance (2020) "You Don't Know Us Negroes" (2022)[106] Film, television, and radio[edit] In 1935 and 1936, Zora Neale Hurston shot documentary footage[107] as part of her fieldwork in Florida and Haiti. Included are rare ethnographic evidence of the Hoodoo and Vodou religion in the U.S. and Haiti. Some footage claimed to be by Hurston from 1928 is accessible from the Internet Archive.[108] In 1989, PBS aired a drama based on Hurston's life entitled Zora is My Name! The 1992–95 PBS children's television series Ghostwriter, which had an emphasis on reading and writing skills, featured the lead characters attending the fictitious Zora Neale Hurston Middle School in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The 2004 film Brother to Brother, set in part during the Harlem Renaissance, featured Hurston (portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis). Their Eyes Were Watching God was adapted for a 2005 film of the same title by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, with a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks. The film starred Halle Berry as Janie Starks. [109] On April 9, 2008, PBS broadcast a 90-minute documentary, Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun,[110] written and produced by filmmaker Kristy Andersen,[111] as part of the American Masters series.[112] In 2009, Hurston was featured in a 90-minute documentary about the WPA Writers' Project titled Soul of a People: Writing America's Story,[113][114] which premiered on the Smithsonian Channel. Her work in Florida during the 1930s is highlighted in the companion book, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America.[115][116] In 2017, Jackie Kay presented a 30-minute BBC Radio 4 documentary about Hurston called A Woman Half in Shadow, first broadcast on April 17, and subsequently available as a podcast.[117][118] Rozonda Thomas plays Hurston in the 2017 film Marshall.[119] In January 2017, the documentary "Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space" premiered on PBS.[120][121] See also[edit] United States portalConservatism portalBiography portal Florida literature Kevin Brown (author) References[edit] Notes[edit] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Boyd, Valerie (2003). Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-84230-1. ^ a b c d Hurston, Lucy Anne (2004). Speak, so you can speak again : the life of Zora Neale Hurston (First ed.). New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49375-4. ^ Trefzer, Annette (2000). "Possessing the Self: Caribbean Identities in Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse". African American Review. 34 (2): 299–312. doi:10.2307/2901255. JSTOR 2901255. ^ Flynn, Elisabeth; Deasy, Caitlin; Ruah, Rachel. "The Upbringing and Education of Zora Neale Hurston". social.rollins.edu. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017. ^ Carpio, Glenda R.; Sollors, Werner (January 2, 2011). "The Newly Complicated Zora Neale Hurston". The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982. Archived from the original on June 26, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017. ^ Rae, Brianna (February 19, 2016). "Black History Profiles – Zora Neale Hurston". The Madison Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2020. ^ Miller, Monica (December 17, 2012). "Archaeology of a Classic". News & Events. Barnard College. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014. ^ Sarkar, Sohel (January 7, 2021). "9 Fascinating Facts About Zora Neale Hurston". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2022. ^ Cave, Damien (September 28, 2008). "In a Town Apart, the Pride and Trials of Black Life". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018. ^ a b Jones, Sharon L. (Sharon Lynette) (2009). Critical companion to Zora Neale Hurston: a literary reference to her life and work. New York. ISBN 978-0-8160-6885-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ a b "Zora! Festival Homepage". Zora! Festival. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2017. ^ a b c About Zora Neale Hurston Archived April 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Zora Neale Hurston official website, maintained by the Zora Neale Hurston Estate and HarperCollins. ^ a b "Chronology of Hurston's Life". University of Central Florida. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. ^ "Zora Neale Hurston". The Baltimore Literary Heritage Project. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2019. ^ Kettler, Sara (January 6, 2016). "Zora Neale Hurston: 7 Facts on Her 125th Birthday". Biography.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019. ^ Zora Neale Hurston Archived December 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Women in History. ^ Staple, J. (2006). "Zora Neale Hurston's Construction of Authenticity through Ethnographic Innovation". Western Journal of Black Studies. S2CID 141415962. ^ Shivonne Foster, Following Footsteps: Zora Neale Hurston Archived November 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The Hilltop, November 20, 2007. ^ Meyer, Annie Nathan (1951). It's Been Fun: An Autobiography. New York: H. Schuman. ^ a b Cheryl A, Wall L (2001). "Hurston, Zora Neale". In Andrews, William L; Foster, Frances Smith; Harris, Trudier (eds.). The concise Oxford companion to African American literature. Oxford University Press. 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"Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America". Oral History Review. 38 (2): 437–439. doi:10.1093/ohr/ohr078. ISSN 0094-0798. S2CID 144818716. ^ A Woman Half in Shadow Archived August 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, BBC Radio 4. ^ "The death and rebirth of Zora Neale Hurston" Archived September 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Seriously ... , BBC. ^ "The True Story of 'Marshall': How Accurate are the Characters?". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2017. ^ Vognar, Chris (January 18, 2023). "How a new film captured Zora Neale Hurston's radical authenticity". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 20, 2023. ^ Craven, TinaMarie (January 11, 2023). "Middletown filmmaker's Zora Neale Hurston film to air on PBS". CT Insider. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 20, 2023. Citations[edit] 28th Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. ZORA! Festival. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, 2017. Web. 10 April 2017. Abcarian, Richard, and Marvin Klotz. "Zora Neale Hurston." In Literature: The Human Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006, pp. 1562–1563. Anderson, Christa S. "African American Women." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, 2005. Web. 9 April 2017. Baym, Nina (ed.), "Zora Neale Hurston." In The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 6th edition, Vol. D. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 2003, pp. 1506–1507. Beito, David T. "Zora Neale Hurston", American Enterprise 6 (September/October 1995), pp. 61–63. Beito, David T. and Beito, Linda Royster, "Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Zora Neale Hurston on War, Race, the State, and Liberty Archived October 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine". Independent Review 12 (Spring 2008). Boyd, Valerie (2003). Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-84230-0. Ellis, C. Arthur. Zora Hurston And The Strange Case Of Ruby McCollum, 1st edition. Lutz, FL: Gadfly Publishing, 2009. Estate of Zora Neale Hurston. "Zora Neale Hurston." The Official Website of Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston Trust, 2015. Web. 11 April 2017. Flynn, Elisabeth, Caitlin Deasy, and Rachel Ruah. "The Upbringing and Education of Zora Neale Hurston." Project Mosaic: Hurston. Rollins College, 11 July 2011. Web. 11 April 2017. Harrison, Beth. "Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Austin: A Case Study in Ethnography, Literary Modernism, and Contemporary Ethnic Fiction. MELUS. 21.2 (1996) 89–106. ISBN 978-0-9820940-0-6. Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. ISBN 0-252-00807-3. Hemenway, Robert E. "Zora Neale Hurston." In Paul Lauter and Richard Yarborough (eds.), The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 5th edition, Vol. D. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006, pp. 1577–1578. Jones, Sharon L. A Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work (New York: Facts on File, 2009). Kaplan, Carla (ed.). Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Random House, 2003. Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham", Theatre Journal 55 (2003), pp. 433–450. Menefee, Samuel Pyeatt, "Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)." In Hilda Ellis Davidson and Carmen Blacker (eds.), Women and Tradition: A Neglected Group of Folklorists, Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2000, pp. 157–172. Trefler, Annette. "Possessing the Self: Caribbean Identities in Zora Neale Hurston's Tell My Horse." African American Review. 34.2 (2000): 299–312. Tucker, Cynthia. "Zora! Celebrated Storyteller Would Have Laughed at Controversy Over Her Origins. She Was Born In Notasulga, Alabama but Eatonville Fla., Claims Her As Its Own"; article documents Kristy Andersen's research into Hurston's birthplace; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 22, 1995. Visweswaran, Kamala. Fictions of Feminist Ethnography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8166-2336-8 Walker, Alice. "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston", Ms. (March 1975), pp. 74–79, 84–89. Further reading[edit] External videos Presentation by Valerie Boyd on Wrapped in Rainbows, January 15, 2003, C-SPAN Boyd, Valerie (2003). Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. Scribner. ISBN 0684842300. Green, Sharony (2023). The Chase and Ruins: Zora Neale Hurston in Honduras. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1421446660. Hemenway, Robert (1977). Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252006526. Jones, Sharon Lynette (2009). Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0816068852. Lucy Anne Hurston (her niece), Speak So You Can Speak Again. Freeman Marshall, Jennifer L. Ain't I An Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon. University of Illinois Press, 2023. Moylan VL. Zora Neale Hurston's Final Decade. University Press of Florida; 2011. ISBN 0813035783 Plant, Deborah G. Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit. Praeger Publishers, 2007. ISBN 978-0275987510 Norwood, Alisha. "Zora Hurston". National Women's History Museum. 2017 Zora Neale Hurston's "The Conscience of the Court" in The Saturday Evening Post External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zora Neale Hurston. Wikiquote has quotations related to Zora Neale Hurston. Official website Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore and Hoodoo[permanent dead link] Zora Neale Hurston Archived November 22, 2001, at the Wayback Machine from the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival) Writings of Hughes and Hurston from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History Zora Neale Hurston Archived April 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine at Women Film Pioneers Project at Columbia University Zora Neale Hurston at Find a Grave Zora Neale Hurston at IMDb Libraries and archives[edit] Zora Neale Hurston: 1891–1960 guide at Howard University Archived December 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Zora Neale Hurston at Library of Congress, with 67 library catalog records Project Mosaic: Zora Neale Hurston (Rollins College) Olin Library Special Collection and Archive Zora Neale Hurston Collection (Rollins College) Zora Neale Hurston Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Sound recordings of Hurston in the 1930s at the State Library and Archives of Florida Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive at the University of Central Florida University of Florida Digital Collections Archive at the University of Florida Zora Neale Hurston Collection Archived March 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Voices from the Gap's biography – University of Minnesota Open-access repositories[edit] Works by Zora Neale Hurston at Project Gutenberg Works by Zora Neale Hurston at Faded Page (Canada) Works by or about Zora Neale Hurston at Internet Archive Works by Zora Neale Hurston at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Zora Neale Hurston at Open Library vteZora Neale HurstonNovels Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934) Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) Seraph on the Suwanee (1948) Nonfiction "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" (1928) Mules and Men (1935) Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" (2018) Plays Color Struck (1925) Mule Bone (1930, staged 1991) Short stories "Sweat" (1926) "The Gilded Six Bits" (1933) Adaptations Spunk (1989) Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) Related Zora Neale Hurston House Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts Hurston-Wright Legacy Award vteFlorida Women's Hall of FameAdministered by the Florida Commission on the Status of Women1980s1982 Mary McLeod Bethune Helene S. Coleman Elaine Gordon Wilhelmina Celeste Goehring Harvey Paula Mae Milton Barbara Jo Palmer 1984 Roxcy O'Neal Bolton Barbara Landstreet Frye Lena B. Smithers Hughes Zora Neale Hurston Sybil Collins Mobley Helen Muir Gladys Pumariega Soler Julia DeForest Sturtevant Tuttle 1986 Annie Ackerman Rosemary Barkett Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry Dorothy Dodd Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elsie Jones Hare Elizabeth McCullough Johnson Frances Bartlett Kinne Arva Moore Parks McCabe Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Florence Barbara Seibert Marilyn K. Smith Eartha M. M. White 1990s1992 Jacqueline Cochran Carrie P. Meek Ruth Bryan Owen 1993 Betty Skelton Frankman Erde Paulina Pedroso Janet Reno 1994 Nikki Beare Betty Mae Jumper Gladys Nichols Milton 1995 Evelyn Stocking Crosslin JoAnn Hardin Morgan Sarah Brooks Pryor 1996 Marjorie Harris Carr Betty Castor Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan 1997 Alicia Baro Carita Doggett Corse M. Athalie Range 1998 Helen Gordon Davis Mattie Belle Davis Christine Fulwylie-Bankston 1999 Althea Gibson Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin Dessie Smith Prescott 2000s2000 Chris Evert Paula Fickes Hawkins Marianne Mathewson-Chapman 2001 Jessie Ball duPont Lenore Carrero Nesbitt Lynda Keever 2002 Victoria Joyce Ely Toni Jennings Frances Langford Stuart 2003 Sarah Ann Blocker Gloria Estefan Mary R. Grizzle 2005 Shirley D. Coletti Judith Kersey Marion Hammer 2006 Caridad Asensio Tillie Fowler Lucy W. Morgan 2007 Maryly VanLeer Peck Peggy A. Quince 2008 Barbara J. Pariente Pallavi Patel Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 2009 Louise H. Cortelis Gwen Margolis Betty Schlesinger Sembler 2010s2010 Eugenie Clark Claudine Dianne Ryce Dara Grace Torres 2011 Mary Brennan Karl Anna I. Rodriguez 2012 Ruth H. Alexander Elizabeth "Budd" Bell Vicki Bryant Burke 2013 Clara C. Frye Aleene Pridgen Kidd MacKenzie Lillie Pierce Voss 2014 Susan Benton Louise Jones Gopher Dottie Berger MacKinnon 2015 Mary Lee Farrior Evelyn Cahn Keiser Charlotte Edwards Maguire 2016 Carol Jenkins Barnett Helen Aguirre Ferré Elmira Louise Leto 2017 Mary Lou Baker Kathleen Scott Robertson Katherine Fernandez Rundle 2018 Adela Hernandez Gonzmart Janet Petro Lee Bird Leavengood 2019 Doris Mae Barnes Judith A. Bense Mildred Wilborn Gildersleeve 2020s2020 Alice Scott Abbott Alma Lee Loy E. Thelma Waters 2021 Virginia M. Hernandez Covington Barbara Nicklaus Beverly Yeager vteInductees to the National Women's Hall of Fame1970–19791973 Jane Addams Marian Anderson Susan B. Anthony Clara Barton Mary McLeod Bethune Elizabeth Blackwell Pearl S. Buck Rachel Carson Mary Cassatt Emily Dickinson Amelia Earhart Alice Hamilton Helen Hayes Helen Keller Eleanor Roosevelt Florence Sabin Margaret Chase Smith Elizabeth Cady Stanton Helen Brooke Taussig Harriet Tubman 1976 Abigail Adams Margaret Mead Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias 1979 Dorothea Dix Juliette Gordon Low Alice Paul Elizabeth Bayley Seton 1980–19891981 Margaret Sanger Sojourner Truth 1982 Carrie Chapman Catt Frances Perkins 1983 Belva Lockwood Lucretia Mott 1984 Mary "Mother" Harris Jones Bessie Smith 1986 Barbara McClintock Lucy Stone Harriet Beecher Stowe 1988 Gwendolyn Brooks Willa Cather Sally Ride Mary Risteau Ida B. Wells-Barnett 1990–19991990 Margaret Bourke-White Barbara Jordan Billie Jean King Florence B. Seibert 1991 Gertrude Belle Elion 1993 Ethel Percy Andrus Antoinette Blackwell Emily Blackwell Shirley Chisholm Jacqueline Cochran Ruth Colvin Marian Wright Edelman Alice Evans Betty Friedan Ella Grasso Martha Wright Griffiths Fannie Lou Hamer Dorothy Height Dolores Huerta Mary Putnam Jacobi Mae Jemison Mary Lyon Mary Mahoney Wilma Mankiller Constance Baker Motley Georgia O'Keeffe Annie Oakley Rosa Parks Esther Peterson Jeannette Rankin Ellen Swallow Richards Elaine Roulet Katherine Siva Saubel Gloria Steinem Helen Stephens Lillian Wald Madam C. J. Walker Faye Wattleton Rosalyn S. Yalow Gloria Yerkovich 1994 Bella Abzug Ella Baker Myra Bradwell Annie Jump Cannon Jane Cunningham Croly Catherine East Geraldine Ferraro Charlotte Perkins Gilman Grace Hopper Helen LaKelly Hunt Zora Neale Hurston Anne Hutchinson Frances Wisebart Jacobs Susette La Flesche Louise McManus Maria Mitchell Antonia Novello Linda Richards Wilma Rudolph Betty Bone Schiess Muriel Siebert Nettie Stevens Oprah Winfrey Sarah Winnemucca Fanny Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge Eileen Collins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald Margaret Fuller Matilda Joslyn Gage Lillian Moller Gilbreth Nannerl O. Keohane Maggie Kuhn Sandra Day O'Connor Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin Pat Schroeder Hannah Greenebaum Solomon 1996 Louisa May Alcott Charlotte Anne Bunch Frances Xavier Cabrini Mary A. Hallaren Oveta Culp Hobby Wilhelmina Cole Holladay Anne Morrow Lindbergh Maria Goeppert Mayer Ernestine Louise Potowski Rose Maria Tallchief Edith Wharton 1998 Madeleine Albright Maya Angelou Nellie Bly Lydia Moss Bradley Mary Steichen Calderone Mary Ann Shadd Cary Joan Ganz Cooney Gerty Cori Sarah Grimké Julia Ward Howe Shirley Ann Jackson Shannon Lucid Katharine Dexter McCormick Rozanne L. Ridgway Edith Nourse Rogers Felice Schwartz Eunice Kennedy Shriver Beverly Sills Florence Wald Angelina Grimké Weld Chien-Shiung Wu 2000–20092000 Faye Glenn Abdellah Emma Smith DeVoe Marjory Stoneman Douglas Mary Dyer Sylvia A. Earle Crystal Eastman Jeanne Holm Leontine T. Kelly Frances Oldham Kelsey Kate Mullany Janet Reno Anna Howard Shaw Sophia Smith Ida Tarbell Wilma L. Vaught Mary Edwards Walker Annie Dodge Wauneka Eudora Welty Frances E. Willard 2001 Dorothy H. Andersen Lucille Ball Rosalynn Carter Lydia Maria Child Bessie Coleman Dorothy Day Marian de Forest Althea Gibson Beatrice A. 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SWEAT

"Untitled" by Jennifer Burk is licensed under CC by 2.0.

It was eleven o'clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday. Any other night, Delia Jones would have been in bed for two hours by this time. But she was a wash-woman, and Monday morning meant a great deal to her. So she collected the soiled clothes on Saturday when she returned the clean things. Sunday night after church, she sorted them and put the white things to soak. It saved her almost a half day's start. A great hamper in the bedroom held the clothes that she brought home. It was so much neater than a number of bundles lying around.

She squatted in the kitchen floor beside the great pile of clothes, sorting them into small heaps according to color, and humming a song in a mournful key, but wondering through it all where Sykes, her husband, had gone with her horse and buckboard.

Just then something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took hold of her. It softened her knees and dried her mouth so that it was a full minute before she could cry out or move. Then she saw that it was the big bull whip her husband liked to carry when he drove.

She lifted her eyes to the door and saw him standing there bent over with laughter at her fright. She screamed at him.

"Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me - looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes."

"Course Ah knowed it! That's how come Ah done it." He slapped his leg with his hand and almost rolled on the ground in his mirth. "If you such a big fool dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or a string, Ah don't keer how bad Ah skeer you."

"You aint got no business doing it. Gawd knows it's a sin. Some day Ah'm gointuh drop dead from some of yo' foolishness. 'Nother thing, where you been wid mah rig? Ah feeds dat pony. He aint fuh you to be drivin' wid no bull whip."

"You sho is one aggravatin' nigger woman!" he declared and stepped into the room. She resumed her work and did not answer him at once. "Ah done tole you time and again to keep them white folks' clothes outa dis house."

He picked up the whip and glared down at her. Delia went on with her work. She went out into the yard and returned with a galvanized tub and set it on the washbench. She saw that Sykes had kicked all of the clothes together again, and now stood in her way truculently, his whole manner hoping, praying, for an argument. But she walked calmly around him and commenced to re-sort the things.

"Next time, Ah'm gointer kick 'em outdoors," he threatened as he struck a match along the leg of his corduroy breeches.

Delia never looked up from her work, and her thin, stooped shoulders sagged further.

"Ah aint for no fuss t'night Sykes. Ah just come from taking sacrament at the church house."

He snorted scornfully. "Yeah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes. You ain't nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amencorner Christians - sing, whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks' clothes on the Sabbath."

He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room. His wife gave a little scream of dismay, and quickly gathered them together again.

"Sykes, you quit grindin' dirt into these clothes! How can Ah git through by Sat'day if Ah don't start on Sunday?"

"Ah don't keer if you never git through. Anyhow, Ah done promised Gawd and a couple of other men, Ah aint gointer have it in mah house. Don't gimme no lip neither, else Ah'll throw 'em out and put mah fist up side yo' head to boot."

Delia's habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her.

"Looka heah, Sykes, you done gone too fur. Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin' in washin' for fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!"

"What's that got to do with me?" he asked brutally.

"What's it got to do with you, Sykes? Mah tub of suds is filled yo' belly with vittles more times than yo' hands is filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin' in it."

She seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did.

"Naw you won't," she panted, "that ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin' with aint comin' heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood. You aint paid for nothin' on this place, and Ah'm gointer stay right heah till Ah'm toted out foot foremost."

"Well, you better quit gittin' me riled up, else they'll be totin' you out sooner than you expect. Ah'm so tired of you Ah don't know whut to do. Gawd! how Ah hates skinny wimmen!"

A little awed by this new Delia, he sidled out of the door and slammed the back gate after him. He did not say where he had gone, but she knew too well. She knew very well that he would not return until nearly daybreak also. Her work over, she went on to bed but not to sleep at once. Things had come to a pretty pass!

She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of his numerous trips to Orlando with all of his wages when he had returned to her penniless, even before the first year had passed. She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and drew herself up into an unhappy little ball in the middle of the big feather bed. Too late now to hope for love, even if it were not Bertha it would be someone else. This case differed from the others only in that she was bolder than the others. Too late for everything except her little home. She had built it for her old days, and planted one by one the trees and flowers there. It was lovely to her, lovely.

Somehow, before sleep came, she found herself saying aloud: "Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing." After that she was able to build a spiritual earthworks against her husband. His shells could no longer reach her. Amen. She went to sleep and slept until he announced his presence in bed by kicking her feet and rudely snatching the covers away.

"Gimme some kivah heah, an' git yo' damn foots over on yo' own side! Ah oughter mash you in yo' mouf fuh drawing dat skillet on me."

Delia went clear to the rail without answering him. A triumphant indifference to all that he was or did.

* * *

The week was as full of work for Delia as all other weeks, and Saturday found her behind her little pony, collecting and delivering clothes.

It was a hot, hot day near the end of July. The village men on Joe Clarke's porch even chewed cane listlessly. They did not hurl the cane-knots as usual. They let them dribble over the edge of the porch. Even conversation had collapsed under the heat.

"Heah come Delia Jones," Jim Merchant said, as the shaggy pony came 'round the bend of the road toward them. The rusty buckboard was heaped with baskets of crisp, clean laundry.

"Yep," Joe Lindsay agreed. "Hot or col', rain or shine, jes ez reg'lar ez de weeks roll roun' Delia carries 'em an' fetches 'em on Sat'day."

"She better if she wanter eat," said Moss. "Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an' powder hit would tek tuh kill 'em. Not to huh he aint."

"He sho' aint," Walter Thomas chimed in. "It's too bad, too, cause she wuz a right pritty lil trick when he got huh. Ah'd uh mah'ied huh mahseff if he hadnter beat me to it."

Delia nodded briefly at the men as she drove past.

"Too much knockin' will ruin any 'oman. He done beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women, let 'lone change they looks," said Elijah Moseley. "How Syke kin stommuck dat big black greasy Mogul he's layin' roun wid, gits me. Ah swear dat eight-rock couldn't kiss a sardine can Ah done throwed out de back do' 'way las' yeah."

"Aw, she's fat, thass how come. He's allus been crazy 'bout fat women," put in Merchant. "He'd a' been tied up wid one long time ago if he could a' found one tuh have him. Did Ah tell yuh 'bout him come sidlin' roun' mah wife - bringin' her a basket uh pee-cans outa his yard fuh a present? Yessir, mah wife! She tol' him tuh take 'em right straight back home, cause Delia works so hard ovah dat washtub she reckon everything on de place taste lak sweat an' soapsuds. Ah jus' wisht Ah'd a' caught 'im 'dere! Ah'd a' made his hips ketch on fiah down dat shell road."

"Ah know he done it, too. Ah sees 'im grinnin' at every 'oman dat passes," Walter Thomas said. "But even so, he useter eat some mighty big hunks uh humble pie tuh git dat lil 'oman he got. She wuz ez pritty ez a speckled pup! Dat wuz fifteen yeahs ago. He useter be so skeered uh losin' huh, she could make him do some parts of a husband's duty. Dey never wuz de same in de mind."

"There oughter be a law about him," said Lindsay. "He aint fit tuh carry guts tuh a bear."

Clarke spoke for the first time. "Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im. There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats 'em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin' while dey is at it, an' hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin' after huh tell she's empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein' a cane-chew an' in de way."

"We oughter take Syke an' dat stray 'oman uh his'n down in Lake Howell swamp an' lay on de rawhide till they cain't say Lawd a' mussy.' He allus wuz uh ovahbearin' niggah, but since dat white 'oman from up north done teached 'im how to run a automobile, he done got too biggety to live - an' we oughter kill 'im," Old Man Anderson advised.

A grunt of approval went around the porch. But the heat was melting their civic virtue, and Elijah Moseley began to bait Joe Clarke. "Come on, Joe, git a melon outa dere an' slice it up for yo' customers. We'se all sufferin' wid de heat. De bear's done got me!"

"Thass right, Joe, a watermelon is jes' whut Ah needs tuh cure de eppizudicks," Walter Thomas joined forces with Moseley. "Come on dere, Joe. We all is steady customers an' you aint set us up in a long time. Ah chooses dat long, bowlegged Floridy favorite."

"A god, an' be dough. You all gimme twenty cents and slice way," Clarke retorted. "Ah needs a col' slice m'self. Heah, everybody chip in. Ah'll lend y'll mah meat knife."

The money was quickly subscribed and the huge melon brought forth. At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrived. A determined silence fell on the porch and the melon was put away again. Merchant snapped down the blade of his jackknife and moved toward the store door.

"Come on in, Joe, an' gimme a slab uh sow belly an' uh pound uh coffee - almost fuhgot 'twas Sat'day. Got to git on home." Most of the men left also.

Just then Delia drove past on her way home, as Sykes was ordering magnificently for Bertha. It pleased him for Delia to see.

"Git whutsoever yo' heart desires, Honey. Wait a minute, Joe. Give huh two bottles uh strawberry soda-water, uh quart uh parched ground-peas, an' a block uh chewin' gum."

With all this they left the store, with Sykes reminding Bertha that this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it. The men returned soon after they left, and held their watermelon feast.

"Where did Syke Jones git da 'oman from nohow?" Lindsay asked.

"Ovah Apopka. Guess dey musta been cleanin' out de town when she lef'. She don't look lak a thing but a hunk uh liver wid hair on it."

"Well, she sho' kin squall," Dave Carter contributed. "When she gits ready tuh laff, she jes' opens huh mouf an' latches it back tuh de las' notch. No ole grandpa alligator down in Lake Bell ain't got nothin' on huh."

Bertha had been in town three months now. Sykes was still paying her room rent at Della Lewis' - the only house in town that would have taken her in. Sykes took her frequently to Winter Park to "stomps." He still assured her that he was the swellest man in the state.

"Sho' you kin have dat lil' ole house soon's Ah kin git dat 'oman outa dere. Everything b'longs tuh me an' you sho' kin have it. Ah sho' 'bominates uh skinny 'oman. Lawdy, you sho' is got one portly shape on you! You kin git anything you wants. Dis is mah town an' you sho' kin have it."

Delia's work-worn knees crawled over the earth in Gethsemane and up the rocks of Calvary many, many times during these months. She avoided the villagers and meeting places in her efforts to be blind and deaf. But Bertha nullified this to a degree, by coming to Delia's house to call Sykes out to her at the gate.

Delia and Sykes fought all the time now with no peaceful interludes. They slept and ate in silence. Two or three times Delia had attempted a timid friendliness, but she was repulsed each time. It was plain that the breaches must remain agape.

* * *

The sun had burned July to August. The heat streamed down like a million hot arrows, smiting all things living upon the earth. Grass withered, leaves browned, snakes went blind in shedding and men and dogs went mad. Dog days!

Delia came home one day and found Sykes there before her. She wondered, but started to go on into the house without speaking, even though he was standing in the kitchen door and she must either stoop under his arm or ask him to move. He made no room for her. She noticed a soap box beside the steps, but paid no particular attention to it, knowing that he must have brought it there. As she was stooping to pass under his outstretched arm, he suddenly pushed her backward, laughingly.

"Look in de box dere Delia, Ah done brung yuh somethin'!"

She nearly fell upon the box in her stumbling, and when she saw what it held, she all but fainted outright.

"Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake 'way from heah! You gottuh. Oh, Jesus, have mussy!"

"Ah aint gut tuh do nuthin' uh de kin' - fact is Ah aint got tuh do nothin' but die. Taint no use uh you puttin' on airs makin' out lak you skeered uh dat snake - he's gointer stay right heah tell he die. He wouldn't bite me cause Ah knows how tuh handle 'im. Nohow he wouldn't risk breakin' out his fangs 'gin yo' skinny laigs."

"Naw, now Syke, don't keep dat thing 'roun' heah tuh skeer me tuh death. You knows Ah'm even feared uh earth worms. Thass de biggest snake Ah evah did see. Kill 'im Syke, please."

"Doan ast me tuh do nothin' fuh yuh. Goin' roun' trying' tuh be so damn asterperious. Naw, Ah aint gonna kill it. Ah think uh damn sight mo' uh him dan you! Dat's a nice snake an' anybody doan lak 'im kin jes' hit de grit."

The village soon heard that Sykes had the snake, and came to see and ask questions.

"How de hen-fire did you ketch dat six-foot rattler, Syke?" Thomas asked.

"He's full uh frogs so he caint hardly move, thass how. Ah eased up on 'm. But Ah'm a snake charmer an' knows how tuh handle 'em. Shux, dat aint nothin'. Ah could ketch one eve'y day if Ah so wanted tuh."

"Whut he needs is a heavy hick'ry club leaned real heavy on his head. Dat's de bes 'way tuh charm a rattlesnake."

"Naw, Walt, y'll jes' don't understand dese diamon' backs lak Ah do," said Sykes in a superior tone of voice.

The village agreed with Walter, but the snake stayed on. His box remained by the kitchen door with its screen wire covering. Two or three days later it had digested its meal of frogs and literally came to life. It rattled at every movement in the kitchen or the yard. One day as Delia came down the kitchen steps she saw his chalky-white fangs curved like scimitars hung in the wire meshes. This time she did not run away with averted eyes as usual. She stood for a long time in the doorway in a red fury that grew bloodier for every second that she regarded the creature that was her torment.

That night she broached the subject as soon as Sykes sat down to the table.

"Syke, Ah wants you tuh take dat snake 'way fum heah. You done starved me an' Ah put up widcher, you done beat me an Ah took dat, but you done kilt all mah insides bringin' dat varmint heah."

Sykes poured out a saucer full of coffee and drank it deliberately before he answered her.

"A whole lot Ah keer 'bout how you feels inside uh out. Dat snake aint goin' no damn wheah till Ah gits ready fuh 'im tuh go. So fur as beatin' is concerned, yuh aint took near all dat you gointer take ef yuh stay 'roun' me."

Delia pushed back her plate and got up from the table. "Ah hates you, Sykes," she said calmly. "Ah hates you tuh de same degree dat Ah useter love yuh. Ah done took an' took till mah belly is full up tuh mah neck. Dat's de reason Ah got mah letter fum de church an' moved mah membership tuh Woodbridge - so Ah don't haf tuh take no sacrament wid yuh. Ah don't wantuh see yuh 'roun' me atall. Lay 'roun' wid dat 'oman all yuh wants tuh, but gwan 'way fum me an' mah house. Ah hates yuh lak uh suck-egg dog."

Sykes almost let the huge wad of corn bread and collard greens he was chewing fall out of his mouth in amazement. He had a hard time whipping himself up to the proper fury to try to answer Delia.

"Well, Ah'm glad you does hate me. Ah'm sho' tiahed uh you hangin' ontuh me. Ah don't want yuh. Look at yuh stringey ole neck! Yo' rawbony laigs an' arms is enough tuh cut uh man tuh death. You looks jes' lak de devvul's doll-baby tuh me. You cain't hate me no worse dan Ah hates you. Ah been hatin' you fuh years."

"Yo' ole black hide don't look lak nothin' tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber, wid yo' big ole yeahs flappin' on each side lak uh paih uh buzzard wings. Don't think Ah'm gointuh be run 'way fum mah house neither. Ah'm goin' tuh de white folks bout you, mah young man, de very nex' time you lay yo' han's on me. Mah cup is done run ovah." Delia said this with no signs of fear and Sykes departed from the house, threatening her, but made not the slightest move to carry out any of them.

That night he did not return at all, and the next day being Sunday, Delia was glad she did not have to quarrel before she hitched up her pony and drove the four miles to Woodbridge. She stayed to the night service - "love feast" - which was very warm and full of spirit. In the emotional winds her domestic trials were borne far and wide so that she sang as she drove homeward.

Jurden water, black an' col'
Chills de body, not de soul
An' Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time.

She came from the barn to the kitchen door and stopped.

"Whut's de mattah, ol' satan, you aint kickin' up yo' racket?" She addressed the snake's box. Complete silence. She went on into the house with a new hope in its birth struggles. Perhaps her threat to go to the white folks had frightened Sykes! Perhaps he was sorry! Fifteen years of misery and suppression had brought Delia to the place where she would hope anything that looked towards a way over or through her wall of inhibitions.

She felt in the match safe behind the stove at once for a match. There was only one there.

"Dat niggah wouldn't fetch nothin' heah tuh save his rotten neck, but he kin run thew whut Ah brings quick enough. Now he done toted off nigh on tuh haff uh box uh matches. He done had dat 'oman heah in mah house, too."

Nobody but a woman could tell how she knew this even before she struck the match. But she did and it put her into a new fury.

Presently she brought in the tubs to put the white things to soak. This time she decided she need not bring the hamper out of the bedroom; she would go in there and do the sorting. She picked up the pot-bellied lamp and went in. The room was small and the hamper stood hard by the foot of the white iron bed. She could sit and reach through the bedposts - resting as she worked.

"Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time," she was singing again. The mood of the "love feast" had returned. She threw back the lid of the basket almost gaily. Then, moved by both horror and terror, she sprang back toward the door. There lay the snake in the basket! He moved sluggishly at first, but even as she turned round and round, jumped up and down in an insanity of fear, he began to stir vigorously. She saw him pouring his awful beauty from the basket upon the bed, then she seized the lamp and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen. The wind from the open door blew out the light and the darkness added to her terror. She sped to the darkness of the yard, slamming the door after her before she thought to set down the lamp. She did not feel safe even on the ground, so she climbed up in the hay barn.

There for an hour or more she lay sprawled upon the hay a gibbering wreck.

Finally, she grew quiet, and after that, coherent thought. With this, stalked through her a cold, bloody rage. Hours of this. A period of introspection, a space of retrospection, then a mixture of both. Out of this an awful calm.

"Well, Ah done de bes' Ah could. If things aint right, Gawd knows taint mah fault."

She went to sleep - a twitch sleep - and woke up to a faint gray sky. There was a loud hollow sound below. She peered out. Sykes was at the wood-pile, demolishing a wire-covered box.

He hurried to the kitchen door, but hung outside there some minutes before he entered, and stood some minutes more inside before he closed it after him.

The gray in the sky was spreading. Delia descended without fear now, and crouched beneath the low bedroom window. The drawn shade shut out the dawn, shut in the night. But the thin walls held back no sound.

"Dat ol' scratch is woke up now!" She mused at the tremendous whirr inside, which every woodsman knows, is one of the sound illusions. The rattler is a ventriloquist. His whirr sounds to the right, to the left, straight ahead, behind, close under foot - everywhere but where it is. Woe to him who guesses wrong unless he is prepared to hold up his end of the argument! Sometimes he strikes without rattling at all.

Inside, Sykes heard nothing until he knocked a pot lid off the stove while trying to reach the match safe in the dark. He had emptied his pockets at Bertha's.

The snake seemed to wake up under the stove and Sykes made a quick leap into the bedroom. In spite of the gin he had had, his head was clearing now.

"'Mah Gawd!" he chattered, "ef Ah could on'y strack uh light!"

The rattling ceased for a moment as he stood paralyzed. He waited. It seemed that the snake waited also.

"Oh, fuh de light! Ah thought he'd be too sick" - Sykes was muttering to himself when the whirr began again, closer, right underfoot this time. Long before this, Sykes' ability to think had been flattened down to primitive instinct and he leaped - onto the bed.

Outside Delia heard a cry that might have come from a maddened chimpanzee, a stricken gorilla. All the terror, all the horror, all the rage that man possibly could express, without a recognizable human sound.

A tremendous stir inside there, another series of animal screams, the intermittent whirr of the reptile. The shade torn violently down from the window, letting in the red dawn, a huge brown hand seizing the window stick, great dull blows upon the wooden floor punctuating the gibberish of sound long after the rattle of the snake had abruptly subsided. All this Delia could see and hear from her place beneath the window, and it made her ill. She crept over to the four-o'clocks and stretched herself on the cool earth to recover. She lay there.

"Delia. Delia!" She could hear Sykes calling in a most despairing tone as one who expected no answer. The sun crept on up, and he called. Delia could not move - her legs were gone flabby. She never moved, he called, and the sun kept rising.

"Mah Gawd!" She heard him moan, "Mah Gawd fum Heben!" She heard him stumbling about and got up from her flower-bed. The sun was growing warm. As she approached the door she heard him call out hopefully, "Delia, is dat you Ah heah?"

She saw him on his hands and knees as soon as she reached the door. He crept an inch or two toward her - all that he was able, and she saw his horribly swollen neck and his one open eye shining with hope. A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye that must, could not fail to, see the tubs. He would see the lamp. Orlando with its doctors was too far. She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew.

Current Page: 1

GRADE:11

Additional Information:

Rating: A Words in the Passage: 980 Unique Words: 1,371 Sentences: 376
Noun: 2013 Conjunction: 310 Adverb: 266 Interjection: 59
Adjective: 295 Pronoun: 571 Verb: 845 Preposition: 483
Letter Count: 19,118 Sentiment: Positive / Positive / Positive Tone: Conversational Difficult Words: 853
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