The Year Zora Neale Hurston Chose for Herself

On June 18, 1939, Zora Neale Hurston stepped up to a government recording machine and told it she was 35, born in Eatonville, Florida. She was 48, and born in Alabama. This is the story of the year she chose for herself, told in her own words from the Library of Congress recordings. THE FILE — The Year Zora Neale Hurston Chose for Herself In 1917, at 26, Hurston gave her birth year as 1901 to qualify for free public schooling in Baltimore. She kept those ten years for life. By 1939 she had published four books, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, and was a junior interviewer for the Federal Writers' Project in Florida. That June she sang work songs, juke songs and folk songs into a disc recorder from memory. She died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1973 Alice Walker had a headstone made. It reads 1901. The washtub bass scene is a reenactment made for this film and is labeled on screen. Chapters: 0:00 The recording, June 18, 1939 0:53 Eatonville 1:22 1917: ten years gone 2:20 The 1935 trip with Lomax and Barnicle 2:52 Wallace Quarterman, born 1844 4:13 Kingdom Coming 5:23 The Federal Writers' Project 6:23 She takes the microphone 9:14 The railroad 10:34 How she learned the songs 11:56 Halimuhfack 13:09 Uncle Bud 14:23 Beaufort, 1940 15:56 The fire 16:27 The unmarked grave 16:58 The year she chose 17:33 Evalina Sources Audio Zora Neale Hurston, Jacksonville, June 18, 1939, recorded by Herbert Halpert with Stetson Kennedy and Carita Doggett Corse. Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections: flwpa000003, flwpa000008, flwpa000012, flwpa000014, flwpa000044. Wallace Quarterman, interviewed by Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, Fort Frederica, Georgia, June 1935. Library of Congress, Voices Remembering Slavery: afc1935001_afs00342a, afc1935001_afs00342b. Film Zora Neale Hurston fieldwork footage, 1928 (attributed). Internet Archive. Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, S.C., May 1940 (described, not shown). Library of Congress 97520363. Photographs Zora Neale Hurston: Library of Congress 93513271, 98511782, 94500465, 00652433, 2004672085; Carl Van Vechten, 1938, LOC 2004663047. Color: Carl Van Vechten Kodachromes, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 1935 Lomax–Hurston–Barnicle expedition, Lomax Collection, LOC LOT 7414. Wallace Quarterman: LOC 2007660094, 2007660095. Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information: Belle Glade, Beaufort, Jacksonville. Track workers, 1942: Howard Liberman, OWI, LOC 2017867919. Howard University (LOC 2016824279); Barnard College (LOC 2025672494); Baltimore waterfront, Detroit Publishing Co. (LOC 2016802504). Disc recorders in the field: John A. Lomax Sr., 1940 (LOC 2015645818); Charles Todd, 1941 (LOC toddbib000402). Beaufort: Historic American Buildings Survey; postcard LOC 2025675386. Charlotte Osgood Mason: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Patrick DuVal: courtesy St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. Alice Walker, 1976: Bernard Gotfryd, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Zora Neale Hurston House, Fort Pierce: Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. First-edition jackets: Jonah's Gourd Vine (Brandeis University Archives), Mules and Men (Christie's), Their Eyes Were Watching God (Wikimedia Commons), Tell My Horse (Link Auction Galleries). Map: Rand McNally, Southeastern States, LOC 98687208. Written sources Stetson Kennedy, Florida Memory (State Library and Archives of Florida). Fayth M. Parks, "Commandment Keeper Church," National Film Registry essay, Library of Congress. Tanya Clement, Zora Neale Hurston WPA recordings, Jacksonville 1939. Zora Neale Hurston Papers, University of Florida (provenance note). Library of America, on Hurston's 1928 footage. Lyrics on screen are transcribed from the 1939 recordings. #ZoraNealeHurston #BlackHistory #LibraryOfCongress #Folklore #Documentary