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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
In spring 1940,

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Zora Neale Hurston,

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the celebrated
Harlem Renaissance writer

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and anthropologist,

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arrived in Beaufort,
South Carolina,

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to study religious trances.

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♪ ♪

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For more than ten years,

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Hurston had skirted danger,

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traveling alone across the
American South and Caribbean,

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documenting
rural Black people's lives

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and collecting their stories.

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Educated at
Howard University and Barnard,

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during her lifetime,
Zora Neale Hurston

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was considered the foremost
authority on Black folklore.

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EVE DUNBAR:
She's interested in
all elements of Black folk.

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She allows
that culture to be dynamic,

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to have a voice in modernity.

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♪ ♪

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IRMA MCCLAURIN:
The research that
Zora Neale Hurston did

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in Beaufort, South Carolina,
represents

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someone who understands
that for people to trust you,

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you have to be in it.

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And that's what she does.

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She joins in with them.

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CHARLES KING:
She's playing a drum.

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At the time,

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this seemed scandalous,

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that you weren't
standing off to one side

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with your white
lab coat and your clipboard,

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noting down
what others were doing.

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MCCLAURIN:
Zora studied her own people,

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which is not something
that is supported

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in anthropology at
that moment.

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DAPHNE LAMOTHE:
Anthropology understood itself
to be a science.

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An aspect of
scientific inquiry

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that's really important is
to be detached and objective.

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She didn't play by those rules.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
From the Jazz Age through
the Great Depression,

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Hurston had published
her extensive research in

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prestigious academic journals,
popular magazines,

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and ethnographic books.

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But it was her fiction,

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thick with dialect,
cultural specificity,

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and richly drawn characters

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that over time would
cement her place

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as one of the most important
writers of the 20th century.

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MCCLAURIN:
She was an innovator,

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using stylistic conventions

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of literature,
but the content is

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rooted in the research
that she did.

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LEE D. BAKER:
She was driven by
her own integrity,

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she was driven
by her own passion,

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and she was driven by
her own sense of

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how best to collect
this folklore.

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KING:
Throughout her entire life,

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the powerful people
around her consistently

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thought of her
as being an outsider,

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less than talented,
a marginal figure.

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CARLA KAPLAN:
We're talking about
somebody who had

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an incredibly creative,
fierce mind.

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MARÍA COTERA:
Her independent streak
and her iconoclasm,

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you could say
it was both her superpower

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and her fatal flaw.

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♪ ♪

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HURSTON (dramatized):
I was glad when somebody told
me,

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"You may go and collect
Negro folklore."

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In a way, it would not be
a new experience for me.

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When I pitched headforemost
into the world,

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I landed in
the crib of Negroism.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
As a child,

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Zora Neale Hurston
possessed a keen interest

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in the stories she heard about
people's lives and customs

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while lingering at
Joe Clark's general store

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in Eatonville, Florida,

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one of a handful of all-Black
towns in the United States.

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HURSTON (dramatized):
It was the habit of the
men folks particularly

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to gather on the store porch
of evenings and swap stories.

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Even the women folks

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would stop and break a breath
with them at times.

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I'd drag out my leaving

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as long as possible
in order to hear more

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to allow whatever was being said
to hang in my ear.

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She's one of those children

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that people would say,
"Go, go away."

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You know, "This is grown
folks' stuff."

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And the more they tell her that,
the more she wants to hear it.

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TIFFANY PATTERSON:
Zora was nosy, pure and simple.

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She had questions.

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She, uh, wanted to see

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what was going on at the store.

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HURSTON (dramatized):
There were no discreet nuances
of life on Joe Clark's porch.

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There was open kindnesses,

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anger, hate, love,

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envy and its kinfolks,

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but all emotions were naked,
and nakedly arrived at.

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It was a case of
"make it and take it."

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MCCLAURIN:
This gathering of people,

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swapping lies,
telling stories,

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is something
that's going to attract her,

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because there is an innate
cultural anthropologist

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in her curiosity about people.

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BAKER:
Eatonville shaped
Zora Neale Hurston's

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worldview from the beginning,

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and what it did

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more than anything else is,

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it showed that Black lives
mattered.

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NARRATOR:
Hurston lived in
an eight-room house

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on five acres of land
with her parents,

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Lucy and John,
and seven siblings.

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Religion and education
were highly valued

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in a home ruled by
her preacher father.

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PATTERSON:
Her father was very domineering.

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Zora had her own ideas.

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She said, "No,
I'm going to do it this way.

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I see it this way."

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And it would
drive her father bananas.
(laughs)

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She was her mother's child.

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Her mother gave
her permission to dream,

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a permission
to ask questions,

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a permission to be artistic.

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(wildlife chittering)

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HURSTON (dramatized):
Mama exhorted her children
at every opportunity to

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"jump at de sun."

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We might not land on the sun,

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but at least
we would get off the ground.

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MCCLAURIN:
The idea that she would strive
to jump at the sun

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really puts into place
the idea that Zora is

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always trying to
reach someplace

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that may be unattainable
to the ordinary person

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and represents
a real challenge for her--

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and a real opportunity.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
When Hurston was 13,

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her beloved mother
became ill and died.

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HURSTON (dramatized):
That hour began my wanderings.

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Mama died at sundown
and changed a world.

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PATTERSON:
That was devastating
for the young Zora.

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She's set adrift.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
Hurston's father soon remarried

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and sent the shattered
young teenager

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to join two siblings at

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Florida Baptist Academy
in Jacksonville.

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He only paid her tuition
for a short time,

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leaving Hurston to
scrub the school's floors

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to finish out the year.

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And then she was on her own.

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HURSTON (dramatized):
The five years following my

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leaving the school at
Jacksonville were haunted.

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I was shifted from
house to house

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of relatives and friends
and found comfort nowhere.

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It seemed that
I had suffered a sea change.

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I was not Zora of
Orange County anymore.

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I was now
a little colored girl.

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I found it out
in certain ways,

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in my heart,
as well as in the mirror.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
Hurston spent another
eight unaccounted years

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trying to find her way
in the world.

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♪ ♪

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HURSTON (dramatized):
I wanted family love and peace
and a resting place.

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I wanted books and school.

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When I saw more
fortunate people

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of my own age on their way

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to and from school,
I would cry inside

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and be depressed for days,

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until I learned how to
mash down on my feelings

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and numb them for a spell.

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I felt crowded in on,

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and hope was beginning to waver.

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(car horn honking)

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NARRATOR:
At 26, Hurston landed
in Baltimore

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with education
still on her mind.

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She realized
by working during the day,

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and shaving ten years
from her age,

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she could attend
high school for free at night.

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With her academic prowess

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evident to
teachers and classmates,

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and sustained by jobs
as a waitress,

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maid, and manicurist,

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an inspired Hurston
enrolled in the elite

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Black college prep school
Morgan Academy in Baltimore

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and then Howard Academy
in Washington, D.C.

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By May 1919,

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she was
a high school graduate

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ready to enroll
in Howard University.

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KING:
It's not until she becomes

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an undergraduate
at Howard University that

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Hurston feels like the gears

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begin to turn again,

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and her life restarts.

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♪ ♪

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NARRATOR:
"You have taken me in.

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I am a tiny
bit of your greatness."

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Hurston vowed at her
first college assembly in 1919,

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"I swear to you that I shall

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never make you ashamed of me."

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She had initially thought that
Howard was out of her league.

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Chartered by
the United States Congress

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in the late 19th century
to educate Black students,

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Howard University,

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the nation's largest Black
institution of higher education,

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often was referred to as the
"Black Harvard."

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A part-time student secretly
years older than her classmates,

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Hurston formed
many close relationships

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and joined the theater company,
Howard Players,

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and the so-called brainy
sorority, Zeta Phi Beta.

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MCCLAURIN:
It's almost like

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having Eatonville
in one space again,

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because it's a Black space.

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It is this concentration of
Black knowledge and Black talent

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that you're not going to find
in many other places.

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PATTERSON:
She was rubbing elbows

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with the developing
political and cultural

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and social ideologies that
were emerging in Black thought,

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and it shaped her
in very important ways.

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BAKER:
She met Alain Locke,
who was a philosophy professor,

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00:11:52,433 --> 00:11:55,466
but also the midwife,
if you will,

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of the so-called
New Negro Movement.

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DUNBAR:
Everybody is really excited
about what it might mean

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to be able to slough off
that Old Negro,

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who is the product of
enslavement.

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LAMOTHE:
Black people

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understood themselves to be

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creators of culture

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and art and literature,

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and make important contributions

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to how American society
understood, thought about,

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and related to Black people
in America.

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One of the major projects
of the New Negro Renaissance

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is to write about and reframe

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how society thinks
about Black culture.

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NARRATOR:
Hurston majored in English,

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00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,566
and penned poetry, stories,
essays, and plays

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drawing from her life
in Eatonville.

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She wrote for Howard's
prestigious literary journal,

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"The Stylus,"

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and in 1924,
she co-founded

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"The Hilltop,"
the university's newspaper.

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Off-campus, Hurston
found inspiration,

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00:13:06,266 --> 00:13:09,633
support, and encouragement
from a literary salon

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00:13:09,633 --> 00:13:13,933
 
frequented by devotees
of the Renaissance.

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HURSTON (dramatized):
I was careful to do my classwork

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and be worthy to stand there

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under the shadow of
the hovering spirit of Howard.

250
00:13:22,133 --> 00:13:25,566
I felt the ladder
under my feet.

251
00:13:25,566 --> 00:13:28,266
BAKER:
At Howard University,
Zora Neale Hurston

252
00:13:28,266 --> 00:13:30,033
was really
encouraged to write

253
00:13:30,033 --> 00:13:33,333
and really was supported,
and in some respects

254
00:13:33,333 --> 00:13:35,900
found her voice,
her literary voice.

255
00:13:37,233 --> 00:13:39,166
NARRATOR:
When Charles S. Johnson,

256
00:13:39,166 --> 00:13:42,733
editor of "Opportunity:
A Journal of Negro Life,"

257
00:13:42,733 --> 00:13:46,433
the influential publication of
the National Urban League,

258
00:13:46,433 --> 00:13:48,966
invited Hurston in 1924

259
00:13:48,966 --> 00:13:50,733
to submit work, she sent

260
00:13:50,733 --> 00:13:53,366
a joyful,
day-in-the-life short story

261
00:13:53,366 --> 00:13:57,100
that drew from
her own childhood.

262
00:13:57,100 --> 00:14:00,666
Hurston's translation
of rural Black experiences

263
00:14:00,666 --> 00:14:03,033
into literature
so impressed Johnson

264
00:14:03,033 --> 00:14:05,666
that he suggested that
the young woman join

265
00:14:05,666 --> 00:14:09,233
the flourishing literary scene
in New York.

266
00:14:10,733 --> 00:14:12,666
KAPLAN:
She had waited a long time

267
00:14:12,666 --> 00:14:15,366
to have her intellectual
gifts recognized.

268
00:14:15,366 --> 00:14:18,966
At Howard, she was recognized.

269
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:24,766
♪ ♪

270
00:14:24,766 --> 00:14:28,066
NARRATOR:
After five-and-a-half years
of part-time study,

271
00:14:28,066 --> 00:14:31,100
Hurston left Howard
with an associate's degree

272
00:14:31,100 --> 00:14:33,166
and moved to Harlem.

273
00:14:33,166 --> 00:14:35,533
HURSTON (dramatized):
Being out of school
for lack of funds

274
00:14:35,533 --> 00:14:37,800
and wanting to be in New York,

275
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:39,333
I decided to go there

276
00:14:39,333 --> 00:14:42,266
and try to get back in school
in that city.

277
00:14:42,266 --> 00:14:46,033
So the first week of
January 1925

278
00:14:46,033 --> 00:14:49,066
found me in New York
with $1.50,

279
00:14:49,066 --> 00:14:53,533
no job, no friends,
and a lot of hope.

280
00:14:53,533 --> 00:14:57,633
MCCLAURIN:
Harlem in the 1920s is a magnet.

281
00:14:57,633 --> 00:14:59,133
It's a satellite.

282
00:14:59,133 --> 00:15:00,600
It's a lightning rod.

283
00:15:01,666 --> 00:15:05,166
It's attracting all this great
talent and energy.

284
00:15:06,766 --> 00:15:09,800
♪ ♪

285
00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,466
PATTERSON:
It's a musical world.

286
00:15:12,466 --> 00:15:14,166
It's a world of jazz.

287
00:15:14,166 --> 00:15:15,766
It's a literary world.

288
00:15:15,766 --> 00:15:18,400
It's a world of politics.

289
00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:20,633
And she wanted to be
a part of that.

290
00:15:20,633 --> 00:15:22,633
LAMOTHE:
Harlem comes to symbolize

291
00:15:22,633 --> 00:15:24,900
this modernity, this newness,

292
00:15:24,900 --> 00:15:29,200
this dynamism,
this idea of change.

293
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:31,433
What you see in
the Harlem Renaissance is that

294
00:15:31,433 --> 00:15:35,766
people are very intentional
in understanding

295
00:15:35,766 --> 00:15:38,866
what it means to write about
and represent

296
00:15:38,866 --> 00:15:43,100
culture,
and Black culture in particular.

297
00:15:44,300 --> 00:15:46,366
DUNBAR:
That idea of the New Negro

298
00:15:46,366 --> 00:15:51,600
sweeps the ethos
of the Black imaginary,

299
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,000
the exciting condition of
Black people, who are,

300
00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:57,366
by virtue of
the Great Migration,

301
00:15:57,366 --> 00:16:00,766
moving from the rural South

302
00:16:00,766 --> 00:16:02,333
to urban centers--

303
00:16:02,333 --> 00:16:05,133
Chicago, New York,
Philadelphia--

304
00:16:05,133 --> 00:16:09,700
moving up,
and participating in

305
00:16:09,700 --> 00:16:13,766
the 20th-century
revolution of modernity.

306
00:16:18,066 --> 00:16:20,766
NARRATOR:
Just four months after
arriving with hope

307
00:16:20,766 --> 00:16:23,733
and a bag of stories,
newcomer Zora Neale Hurston

308
00:16:23,733 --> 00:16:27,033
gained a pivotal foothold
in New York

309
00:16:27,033 --> 00:16:31,366
at "Opportunity's"
first annual literary awards.

310
00:16:31,366 --> 00:16:32,800
COTERA:
The "Opportunity" awards

311
00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:34,166
introduce her to

312
00:16:34,166 --> 00:16:35,966
the Harlem literati of New York

313
00:16:35,966 --> 00:16:38,566
as it's kind of developing
and rising up

314
00:16:38,566 --> 00:16:42,500
in this mid-1920s moment.

315
00:16:42,500 --> 00:16:45,466
NARRATOR:
With over 300 guests
in attendance,

316
00:16:45,466 --> 00:16:48,766
the event was a who's who of
the Harlem Renaissance:

317
00:16:48,766 --> 00:16:52,866
progressive New Yorkers,
Black and White,

318
00:16:52,866 --> 00:16:54,633
from the worlds
of literature, arts,

319
00:16:54,633 --> 00:16:57,033
education, and philanthropy.

320
00:16:58,366 --> 00:16:59,800
Langston Hughes,

321
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:02,733
the promising 24-year-old
writer from Missouri,

322
00:17:02,733 --> 00:17:05,300
won the first prize in poetry.

323
00:17:05,300 --> 00:17:09,266
But that evening,
Hurston won the most prizes--

324
00:17:09,266 --> 00:17:14,400
two second-place awards
and two honorable mentions.

325
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,266
♪ ♪

326
00:17:17,266 --> 00:17:20,266
PATTERSON:
Hurston was different
than others.

327
00:17:20,266 --> 00:17:21,966
She'd come from the South.

328
00:17:21,966 --> 00:17:24,033
She was funny.

329
00:17:24,033 --> 00:17:25,833
MCCLAURIN:
She is flamboyant.

330
00:17:25,833 --> 00:17:27,800
She is bodacious.

331
00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:29,766
She is outspoken.

332
00:17:29,766 --> 00:17:32,466
And she also likes to be
the center of attention.

333
00:17:34,433 --> 00:17:38,033
At that moment in time,
Harlem is also about

334
00:17:38,033 --> 00:17:39,700
respectability.

335
00:17:39,700 --> 00:17:40,866
People are wanting to

336
00:17:40,866 --> 00:17:43,800
move away from
the Southern culture,

337
00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:47,366
because it's seen as
lower-class.

338
00:17:47,366 --> 00:17:50,266
And Zora brings
her Southernness with her,

339
00:17:50,266 --> 00:17:51,666
because she's
not ashamed of it.

340
00:17:53,500 --> 00:17:54,900
PATTERSON:
She was smart,

341
00:17:54,900 --> 00:17:57,166
she had ideas,
and she was interested in

342
00:17:57,166 --> 00:17:59,066
other people with ideas.

343
00:17:59,066 --> 00:18:03,000
She fell into that world
and she fit in that world.

344
00:18:04,466 --> 00:18:07,633
NARRATOR:
Prize-winner Langston Hughes
later remarked,

345
00:18:07,633 --> 00:18:11,100
"Zora Neale Hurston is
a clever girl, isn't she?

346
00:18:11,100 --> 00:18:13,466
I would like to know her."

347
00:18:13,466 --> 00:18:15,600
KING:
It was at the prize ceremony

348
00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,433
where she first met
Langston Hughes,

349
00:18:18,433 --> 00:18:21,466
and that relationship
would continue to define

350
00:18:21,466 --> 00:18:24,500
the early part
of her literary life.

351
00:18:24,500 --> 00:18:26,933
NARRATOR:
By evening's end,

352
00:18:26,933 --> 00:18:31,233
Hurston also had met and
impressed two influential women

353
00:18:31,233 --> 00:18:33,300
who would support
her academic goals.

354
00:18:33,300 --> 00:18:34,533
Fannie Hurst,

355
00:18:34,533 --> 00:18:37,433
one of the nation's
most successful writers,

356
00:18:37,433 --> 00:18:39,466
sought out Hurston
after the event

357
00:18:39,466 --> 00:18:42,033
to hire her as
personal secretary.

358
00:18:42,033 --> 00:18:43,866
And Annie Nathan Meyer,

359
00:18:43,866 --> 00:18:46,166
a wealthy female founder
of Barnard,

360
00:18:46,166 --> 00:18:49,800
the women's college affiliated
with Columbia University,

361
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:51,966
offered Hurston
admittance on the spot

362
00:18:51,966 --> 00:18:56,166
so that she could resume her
undergraduate studies.

363
00:18:56,166 --> 00:18:58,500
KAPLAN:
She was unusually adaptable.

364
00:18:58,500 --> 00:19:01,266
She was somebody who could

365
00:19:01,266 --> 00:19:04,933
function in almost any milieu.

366
00:19:04,933 --> 00:19:06,600
(people talking in background)

367
00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:08,966
MCCLAURIN:
The fact that Zora is able to

368
00:19:08,966 --> 00:19:12,766
finagle a scholarship
out of an event

369
00:19:12,766 --> 00:19:14,866
where she meets someone
for the first time

370
00:19:14,866 --> 00:19:17,900
speaks to her prowess

371
00:19:17,900 --> 00:19:22,000
as someone
who is able to engage people.

372
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,200
(talking in background)

373
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,100
CHOIR:
♪ There's a college on
a hilltop ♪

374
00:19:32,100 --> 00:19:37,200
♪ That's very dear to me ♪

375
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,400
BAKER:
When she enters Barnard,
she enters

376
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:41,633
an elite world
of women's education.

377
00:19:41,633 --> 00:19:45,833
And as I understand,
she was the only

378
00:19:45,833 --> 00:19:47,866
African American woman there.

379
00:19:47,866 --> 00:19:50,233
CHOIR:
♪ To dear old Barnard ♪

380
00:19:50,233 --> 00:19:51,933
She is what my mother would call

381
00:19:51,933 --> 00:19:53,400
a "fly in the buttermilk"
at Barnard.

382
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:57,700
KAPLAN:
She was not only
the only Black student

383
00:19:57,700 --> 00:20:00,233
to be at Barnard at the time,

384
00:20:00,233 --> 00:20:02,500
she was pretending to be

385
00:20:02,500 --> 00:20:04,866
eight to ten years younger
than she was,

386
00:20:04,866 --> 00:20:08,666
and she was there

387
00:20:08,666 --> 00:20:12,733
without the privileges
and advantages

388
00:20:12,733 --> 00:20:14,966
that almost everybody else
at Barnard had.

389
00:20:14,966 --> 00:20:18,900
She did not have family
sending her money,

390
00:20:18,900 --> 00:20:24,266
she was working to get
every cent that she needed.

391
00:20:27,566 --> 00:20:30,033
HURSTON (dramatized):
I feel my race.

392
00:20:30,033 --> 00:20:32,566
Among the thousand
White persons,

393
00:20:32,566 --> 00:20:35,733
I am a dark rock,
surged upon,

394
00:20:35,733 --> 00:20:38,400
overswept by a creamy sea.

395
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,900
I am surged upon and overswept,

396
00:20:41,900 --> 00:20:47,066
but through it all,
I remain myself.

397
00:20:47,066 --> 00:20:49,500
KAPLAN:
She had to make a decision about

398
00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:51,566
whether she was
going to try to fit in

399
00:20:51,566 --> 00:20:54,100
or try to play up
her difference.

400
00:20:54,100 --> 00:20:56,266
And in true
Zora Neale Hurston style,

401
00:20:56,266 --> 00:21:00,366
it appears that she did both.

402
00:21:01,966 --> 00:21:05,366
BAKER:
Being at Barnard
I'm sure gave her both

403
00:21:05,366 --> 00:21:09,500
confidence as well as
excitement that she was

404
00:21:09,500 --> 00:21:13,600
as smart as anyone
in the country.

405
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:15,266
She's very secure

406
00:21:15,266 --> 00:21:17,933
in wanting to advance herself,

407
00:21:17,933 --> 00:21:22,500
and she will take advantage of
any opportunity to do that.

408
00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:25,833
KAPLAN:
When it came to needing to
be popular,

409
00:21:25,833 --> 00:21:28,933
or get extra things,

410
00:21:28,933 --> 00:21:30,733
she let the fellow students
in her class

411
00:21:30,733 --> 00:21:34,766
see her as special,
and even exotic.

412
00:21:34,766 --> 00:21:38,033
But she never allowed anybody

413
00:21:38,033 --> 00:21:41,733
to treat her as lesser than,

414
00:21:41,733 --> 00:21:45,800
or to minimize her.

415
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,433
NARRATOR:
Something of a celebrity
on campus,

416
00:21:48,433 --> 00:21:50,533
Hurston later remarked
that she was

417
00:21:50,533 --> 00:21:53,066
"Barnard's sacred black cow."

418
00:21:53,066 --> 00:21:55,733
She was a published writer,

419
00:21:55,733 --> 00:21:57,700
friends with Fannie Hurst,

420
00:21:57,700 --> 00:22:00,566
and part of the ambitious
younger generation of

421
00:22:00,566 --> 00:22:02,166
Harlem's artists,

422
00:22:02,166 --> 00:22:04,800
which made progressive-minded
Barnard students

423
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,300
eager to know her.

424
00:22:07,300 --> 00:22:09,700
♪ ♪

425
00:22:09,700 --> 00:22:14,000
COTERA:
She starts at Barnard
looking to become a teacher,

426
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,366
which was the expected path

427
00:22:16,366 --> 00:22:19,300
of an upwardly mobile
African American woman

428
00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:20,866
at the time,

429
00:22:20,866 --> 00:22:24,266
except she has
this brilliant creativity,

430
00:22:24,266 --> 00:22:29,533
and a storehouse of stories
and tales from Eatonville.

431
00:22:29,533 --> 00:22:32,800
♪ ♪

432
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:34,333
NARRATOR:
In her second semester,

433
00:22:34,333 --> 00:22:37,266
Hurston wrote a paper
in her anthropology class

434
00:22:37,266 --> 00:22:40,733
that resulted in a summons
from Franz Boas,

435
00:22:40,733 --> 00:22:42,566
the world-renowned founder of

436
00:22:42,566 --> 00:22:46,000
Columbia University's
anthropology department.

437
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:52,466
It was an auspicious meeting
for the aspiring writer-teacher.

438
00:22:52,466 --> 00:22:54,366
COTERA:
It wasn't until she encountered

439
00:22:54,366 --> 00:22:56,933
anthropology at
Barnard and Columbia

440
00:22:56,933 --> 00:23:00,133
that she really began
to see her culture

441
00:23:00,133 --> 00:23:02,233
as something
that could be studied.

442
00:23:03,833 --> 00:23:07,333
She arrives in New York
and at Barnard

443
00:23:07,333 --> 00:23:09,600
at exactly the perfect time,

444
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,733
an arrival that
is converging with

445
00:23:12,733 --> 00:23:16,366
transformations in
anthropology.

446
00:23:20,300 --> 00:23:25,466
♪ ♪

447
00:23:25,466 --> 00:23:28,033
(birds chirping)

448
00:23:28,033 --> 00:23:31,366
MCCLAURIN:
The idea of anthropology,

449
00:23:31,366 --> 00:23:34,766
the way that it was formed,
was to study the other.

450
00:23:34,766 --> 00:23:36,433
We were the objects of study,

451
00:23:36,433 --> 00:23:39,900
but we were not supposed to be
the researchers.

452
00:23:39,900 --> 00:23:42,766
BAKER:
Anthropology is an
old discipline.

453
00:23:42,766 --> 00:23:44,366
It really became

454
00:23:44,366 --> 00:23:47,200
a professional discipline
in the 1840s

455
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:48,733
as a defense for slavery.

456
00:23:51,566 --> 00:23:54,266
If all men were created equal,

457
00:23:54,266 --> 00:23:57,433
well, we shouldn't have slavery,

458
00:23:57,433 --> 00:23:59,766
and so if
they weren't quite men

459
00:23:59,766 --> 00:24:04,500
or quite human,
we can justify slavery.

460
00:24:04,500 --> 00:24:06,733
Well, then
we come into the 1890s,

461
00:24:06,733 --> 00:24:08,866
and we have Jim Crow after
Reconstruction.

462
00:24:08,866 --> 00:24:10,333
Guess what?

463
00:24:10,333 --> 00:24:14,366
Anthropology started to
support Jim Crow segregation.

464
00:24:14,366 --> 00:24:16,866
♪ ♪

465
00:24:16,866 --> 00:24:19,233
Anthropology in the 1890s,

466
00:24:19,233 --> 00:24:23,133
before Franz Boas really
comes on the professional scene,

467
00:24:23,133 --> 00:24:26,566
construed people in terms of
"savage,"

468
00:24:26,566 --> 00:24:28,366
"barbarian,"

469
00:24:28,366 --> 00:24:31,200
and "civilized."

470
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,633
There was
a great deal of research

471
00:24:34,633 --> 00:24:38,566
trying to pigeonhole people into
this evolutionary hierarchy.

472
00:24:38,566 --> 00:24:43,700
♪ ♪

473
00:24:43,700 --> 00:24:44,966
COTERA:
A lot of times,

474
00:24:44,966 --> 00:24:47,266
"anthropologists"
didn't actually even visit

475
00:24:47,266 --> 00:24:49,366
the places that they were
writing about,

476
00:24:49,366 --> 00:24:51,133
or, or know the people that they
were writing about.

477
00:24:52,666 --> 00:24:54,066
NARRATOR:
These scientists,

478
00:24:54,066 --> 00:24:57,666
later referred to as
armchair anthropologists,

479
00:24:57,666 --> 00:24:59,700
formed their theories
and the foundations

480
00:24:59,700 --> 00:25:02,033
of the discipline based on

481
00:25:02,033 --> 00:25:04,066
the biased writings of
colonizers--

482
00:25:04,066 --> 00:25:08,733
explorers, missionaries,
travelers, and military men.

483
00:25:13,166 --> 00:25:16,233
Franz Boas,
a German Jewish immigrant

484
00:25:16,233 --> 00:25:17,533
to the United States,

485
00:25:17,533 --> 00:25:21,333
rejected their methods
and conclusions.

486
00:25:21,333 --> 00:25:23,066
BAKER:
He was one of the first people

487
00:25:23,066 --> 00:25:26,733
that took living with
Indigenous people seriously,

488
00:25:26,733 --> 00:25:30,966
and he worked with the Inuits
and other people.

489
00:25:30,966 --> 00:25:34,333
And when you live with
someone for a year,

490
00:25:34,333 --> 00:25:35,666
guess what happens?

491
00:25:35,666 --> 00:25:39,966
You start seeing that
they have a lot to say.

492
00:25:41,300 --> 00:25:44,966
COTERA:
Boas saw 19th-century
anthropology

493
00:25:44,966 --> 00:25:46,800
and the discourses that emerged

494
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:51,533
as being biased representations
of cultural others.

495
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,500
He really wanted to bring
more scientific accuracy

496
00:25:56,500 --> 00:26:00,600
in the description of
other cultures.

497
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,666
NARRATOR:
Boas landed at
Columbia University.

498
00:26:04,666 --> 00:26:07,200
His methodology for disputing

499
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,033
racial and cultural hierarchies
gained traction,

500
00:26:10,033 --> 00:26:12,400
and he became known as
the father of both

501
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:14,900
modern and American
anthropology.

502
00:26:14,900 --> 00:26:19,066
Columbia's Morningside Heights
campus became a magnet

503
00:26:19,066 --> 00:26:22,166
for students eager
to please "Papa Franz."

504
00:26:23,966 --> 00:26:25,766
KING:
He was helping young people

505
00:26:25,766 --> 00:26:28,333
to explore a completely new
world of ideas

506
00:26:28,333 --> 00:26:31,200
that he was in the process
of inventing:

507
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,900
that people don't
come prepackaged

508
00:26:33,900 --> 00:26:35,933
in races or ethnicities;

509
00:26:35,933 --> 00:26:38,100
that cultures make sense

510
00:26:38,100 --> 00:26:40,000
on their own terms

511
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000
if you spend enough time
trying to understand them.

512
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,566
The mental characteristics
of a race are not

513
00:26:46,566 --> 00:26:48,633
an expression of bodily form.

514
00:26:48,633 --> 00:26:52,500
They are a reflection of
cultural life.

515
00:26:52,500 --> 00:26:55,533
KING:
For the young people who
came into his classrooms,

516
00:26:55,533 --> 00:26:58,700
these were revolutionary ideas.

517
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,633
BAKER:
Zora Neale Hurston was excited

518
00:27:02,633 --> 00:27:05,433
to study anthropology
at Columbia,

519
00:27:05,433 --> 00:27:08,533
because so much of
American society and the media

520
00:27:08,533 --> 00:27:12,200
did not value
African American culture.

521
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:13,933
Franz Boas had a good eye

522
00:27:13,933 --> 00:27:16,800
for talent, and he
didn't care if they were

523
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,366
Black, White,
women, male, or the like.

524
00:27:22,066 --> 00:27:23,933
KING:
Around 1920 or so,

525
00:27:23,933 --> 00:27:25,833
Franz Boas said that a change

526
00:27:25,833 --> 00:27:28,400
had come over his seminar rooms
in recent years,

527
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:29,666
that, as he put it,

528
00:27:29,666 --> 00:27:32,066
"All my best students
are women."

529
00:27:32,066 --> 00:27:34,700
BAKER:
Ruth Benedict,

530
00:27:34,700 --> 00:27:37,300
Ella Deloria,
Margaret Mead,

531
00:27:37,300 --> 00:27:40,500
and others
became anthropologists

532
00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:42,400
under his guidance.

533
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:46,100
Franz Boas becomes excited
with Zora Neale Hurston

534
00:27:46,100 --> 00:27:49,166
because there were a number
of White anthropologists

535
00:27:49,166 --> 00:27:54,066
that tried to understand
the African American experience,

536
00:27:54,066 --> 00:27:56,233
but never really got very far.

537
00:27:58,266 --> 00:28:00,233
NARRATOR:
With Boas's encouragement,

538
00:28:00,233 --> 00:28:05,366
Hurston eagerly enrolled in
more anthropology courses.

539
00:28:05,366 --> 00:28:08,033
KING:
Hurston signed on as a
research assistant

540
00:28:08,033 --> 00:28:12,666
to go to Harlem and do
some physical anthropological--

541
00:28:12,666 --> 00:28:14,700
anthropometrical,
as it was called at the time--

542
00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:17,033
measurements
that the Boas community

543
00:28:17,033 --> 00:28:18,666
and some of his students are,
are engaged in.

544
00:28:18,666 --> 00:28:22,466
♪ ♪

545
00:28:22,466 --> 00:28:24,866
HURSTON (dramatized):
I am being trained for
anthropometry

546
00:28:24,866 --> 00:28:26,266
and to do measuring.

547
00:28:26,266 --> 00:28:28,966
Dr. Boas says if I make good,

548
00:28:28,966 --> 00:28:31,666
there are more jobs
in store for me,

549
00:28:31,666 --> 00:28:34,333
and so I must learn
as quickly as possible,

550
00:28:34,333 --> 00:28:36,400
and be quite accurate.

551
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:40,200
Boas is eager
for me to start.

552
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,733
MCCLAURIN:
There were theories that
the head sizes of

553
00:28:43,733 --> 00:28:46,333
different so-called races

554
00:28:46,333 --> 00:28:49,666
is something that was
going to be able to tell us

555
00:28:49,666 --> 00:28:52,233
more about the level of
intelligence,

556
00:28:52,233 --> 00:28:54,733
what kind of culture they had.

557
00:28:56,933 --> 00:28:59,600
PATTERSON:
As anthropology evolved,

558
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,500
this data was then used

559
00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:03,200
to show the opposite:

560
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:04,200
to show that Black people,

561
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,166
White people, Indians,

562
00:29:06,166 --> 00:29:09,766
were human beings with
brains, eyes, ears and nose

563
00:29:09,766 --> 00:29:11,966
and all of that
in the same place

564
00:29:11,966 --> 00:29:14,266
with the same capacity.

565
00:29:14,266 --> 00:29:16,500
But they're
operating against

566
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:21,933
a very powerful ideology of
the inferiority of populations.

567
00:29:25,966 --> 00:29:27,766
(people talking in background)
(cars rumbling)

568
00:29:27,766 --> 00:29:30,233
NARRATOR:
Hurston dutifully headed down

569
00:29:30,233 --> 00:29:31,800
to Lenox Avenue in Harlem

570
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:33,633
to measure heads
she found interesting

571
00:29:33,633 --> 00:29:36,766
with what Langston Hughes
described as a

572
00:29:36,766 --> 00:29:39,833
"strange-looking"
anthropological device.

573
00:29:39,833 --> 00:29:43,833
He was amazed that
no one bawled her out.

574
00:29:43,833 --> 00:29:46,300
DUNBAR:
Black people understand that

575
00:29:46,300 --> 00:29:47,566
once they start
measuring your head,

576
00:29:47,566 --> 00:29:50,300
they're trying to
prove that you're not human.

577
00:29:50,300 --> 00:29:52,400
So to go out on
the street corners

578
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,000
and ask Black people

579
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,233
to let you measure their head

580
00:29:56,233 --> 00:29:58,500
would have been a big ask.
(laughs)

581
00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:02,000
 
But because of
her gregariousness,

582
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,200
they comply.

583
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:08,266
(people talking in background)

584
00:30:08,266 --> 00:30:10,900
♪ ♪

585
00:30:14,300 --> 00:30:17,233
NARRATOR:,
In February 1927,

586
00:30:17,233 --> 00:30:19,466
after Zora Neale Hurston
had completed

587
00:30:19,466 --> 00:30:21,800
most of her
undergraduate coursework,

588
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,666
she boarded a train
headed to Florida

589
00:30:24,666 --> 00:30:28,233
to begin six months
of fieldwork in the South.

590
00:30:28,233 --> 00:30:30,100
Boas had convinced

591
00:30:30,100 --> 00:30:32,666
pre-eminent Black scholar
Carter G. Woodson,

592
00:30:32,666 --> 00:30:35,266
director of the
Association for the Study

593
00:30:35,266 --> 00:30:36,533
of Negro Life and History,

594
00:30:36,533 --> 00:30:39,500
and wealthy sociologist
and anthropologist

595
00:30:39,500 --> 00:30:43,300
Elsie Clews Parsons
to fund her trip.

596
00:30:44,466 --> 00:30:47,633
DUNBAR:
There was a certain amount of
progressiveness in

597
00:30:47,633 --> 00:30:49,966
Boas's vision about training,

598
00:30:49,966 --> 00:30:53,333
in deputizing
minoritized people

599
00:30:53,333 --> 00:30:56,933
in order to go into
their own cultures

600
00:30:56,933 --> 00:30:59,633
that wasn't necessarily done.

601
00:30:59,633 --> 00:31:04,333
And there's a certain sense of
valuing these people

602
00:31:04,333 --> 00:31:08,033
for what they were
able to help to produce.

603
00:31:08,033 --> 00:31:10,233
♪ ♪

604
00:31:10,233 --> 00:31:11,900
NARRATOR:
Hurston's assignment:

605
00:31:11,900 --> 00:31:13,933
collect data on
Black Southerners,

606
00:31:13,933 --> 00:31:16,333
including their practices,

607
00:31:16,333 --> 00:31:21,066
beliefs, dances,
and storytelling ways.

608
00:31:21,066 --> 00:31:24,766
COTERA:
She goes off after taking
a few classes in anthropology

609
00:31:24,766 --> 00:31:29,866
really intent on being this
good Boasian anthropologist--

610
00:31:29,866 --> 00:31:34,933
following Boasian methods
of participant observation.

611
00:31:34,933 --> 00:31:36,400
Participant observation

612
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,233
required that you kind of

613
00:31:38,233 --> 00:31:40,066
immerse yourself in
another culture

614
00:31:40,066 --> 00:31:41,566
in order to understand it

615
00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:43,166
from the inside out.

616
00:31:45,466 --> 00:31:47,833
NARRATOR:
To motor around the South,

617
00:31:47,833 --> 00:31:50,066
Hurston took out a car loan
in Jacksonville

618
00:31:50,066 --> 00:31:52,533
using Boas's name for
reference--

619
00:31:52,533 --> 00:31:54,633
a surprise
he did not appreciate--

620
00:31:54,633 --> 00:31:58,100
and secured a
chrome-plated pistol.

621
00:31:58,100 --> 00:32:01,233
Set with her two-seater
she named Sassy Susie,

622
00:32:01,233 --> 00:32:04,200
Hurston took off for
Eatonville.

623
00:32:05,533 --> 00:32:09,733
KING:
Florida in the Jim Crow era
was the heart of darkness.

624
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,533
KAPLAN:
Here is a Black woman
traveling alone

625
00:32:14,533 --> 00:32:17,666
with an exposed revolver.

626
00:32:17,666 --> 00:32:20,333
She looks like
a Black Annie Oakley.

627
00:32:20,333 --> 00:32:23,566
She couldn't have drawn
more attention to herself

628
00:32:23,566 --> 00:32:26,066
at a time when
one of the only ways

629
00:32:26,066 --> 00:32:31,200
for her to be safe is
to fly underneath the radar.

630
00:32:34,133 --> 00:32:38,100
HURSTON (dramatized):
I hurried back to Eatonville,
because I knew that the town was

631
00:32:38,100 --> 00:32:40,633
full of material
and that I could get it

632
00:32:40,633 --> 00:32:43,800
without hurt,
harm, or danger.

633
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,066
NARRATOR:
Collecting did not go as planned

634
00:32:47,066 --> 00:32:50,833
for one of the newest members of
the American Folk-Lore Society.

635
00:32:50,833 --> 00:32:53,600
HURSTON (dramatized):
I went about asking,

636
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,733
in carefully
accented Barnardese,

637
00:32:56,733 --> 00:33:03,500
"Pardon me, but do you know any
folk tales or folk songs?"

638
00:33:03,500 --> 00:33:07,400
PATTERSON:
Black people are suspicious,
I think.

639
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,633
And they're
gonna look at you, like,

640
00:33:10,633 --> 00:33:12,366
"What's wrong with you?" Okay?

641
00:33:12,366 --> 00:33:14,300
"You're
acting like White people."

642
00:33:16,366 --> 00:33:20,400
HURSTON (dramatized):
The men and women who had
whole treasuries of material

643
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:21,800
just seeping through their pores

644
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:24,966
looked at me
and shook their heads.

645
00:33:24,966 --> 00:33:26,400
No.

646
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,300
They had never heard of
anything like that around there.

647
00:33:30,300 --> 00:33:32,700
Maybe it was over in
the next county.

648
00:33:32,700 --> 00:33:35,066
Why didn't I try over there?

649
00:33:35,066 --> 00:33:38,266
I did, and got
the selfsame answer.

650
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,033
NARRATOR:
Her reports back to
Boas failed to impress.

651
00:33:45,033 --> 00:33:48,233
In May,
he sent a stern critique:

652
00:33:48,233 --> 00:33:50,400
"I find that
what you have obtained

653
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,266
"is largely repetition of
the kind of material

654
00:33:53,266 --> 00:33:56,200
that has been
collected so much."

655
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:59,166
Hurston had come home,

656
00:33:59,166 --> 00:34:02,833
but her education
made her an outsider.

657
00:34:02,833 --> 00:34:04,633
She needed a methodology

658
00:34:04,633 --> 00:34:07,733
that would bring her
back inside.

659
00:34:07,733 --> 00:34:09,166
COTERA:
The assumption behind

660
00:34:09,166 --> 00:34:12,566
participant observation
was always that

661
00:34:12,566 --> 00:34:14,533
you were studying,
as the anthropologist,

662
00:34:14,533 --> 00:34:15,866
a different culture.

663
00:34:15,866 --> 00:34:20,166
When she approached the people
as an outsider,

664
00:34:20,166 --> 00:34:21,766
she encountered

665
00:34:21,766 --> 00:34:24,400
what she called
"the featherbed resistance."

666
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,100
The idea that they'll
let you in only so far,

667
00:34:27,100 --> 00:34:29,166
but really you're not
going to get at the truth

668
00:34:29,166 --> 00:34:31,500
of what the culture holds.

669
00:34:35,433 --> 00:34:37,366
NARRATOR:
An unexpected encounter

670
00:34:37,366 --> 00:34:40,366
with Langston Hughes
in Mobile, Alabama, in July

671
00:34:40,366 --> 00:34:43,133
brightened Hurston's mood.

672
00:34:43,133 --> 00:34:46,166
She agreed to drive Hughes
back to New York,

673
00:34:46,166 --> 00:34:47,766
and he accompanied her on

674
00:34:47,766 --> 00:34:50,733
fieldwork in Alabama
and Georgia,

675
00:34:50,733 --> 00:34:53,300
the pair bonding over
their shared interest

676
00:34:53,300 --> 00:34:55,133
in rural folk culture.

677
00:34:55,133 --> 00:34:57,266
Hughes told her he
would put in a good word

678
00:34:57,266 --> 00:34:59,333
with his New York patron.

679
00:34:59,333 --> 00:35:02,766
In autumn,
Hurston returned north

680
00:35:02,766 --> 00:35:06,766
to write her reports and
face her mentor.

681
00:35:06,766 --> 00:35:08,000
HURSTON (dramatized):
I went back to New York

682
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,866
with my heart
beneath my knees

683
00:35:10,866 --> 00:35:13,233
and my knees in
some lonesome valley.

684
00:35:13,233 --> 00:35:18,633
I stood before Papa Franz
and cried salty tears.

685
00:35:18,633 --> 00:35:21,533
He gave me a good going over.

686
00:35:26,966 --> 00:35:29,533
♪ ♪

687
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,600
BAKER:
Historically, folklore has been

688
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,133
an integral part of
anthropology,

689
00:35:37,133 --> 00:35:40,066
because people
wanted to understand

690
00:35:40,066 --> 00:35:42,166
individuals' worldviews.

691
00:35:42,166 --> 00:35:46,666
And it has been a way of
analyzing systematically

692
00:35:46,666 --> 00:35:50,433
how people
make sense of the world.

693
00:35:50,433 --> 00:35:54,400
COTERA:
It was anthropology that
really showed Hurston

694
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,033
that she could write
about her culture

695
00:35:57,033 --> 00:35:59,766
and imagine a career
where that could really be

696
00:35:59,766 --> 00:36:03,733
the source of
her literary imagination.

697
00:36:03,733 --> 00:36:08,766
HURSTON (dramatized):
Folklore is not as easy to
collect as it sounds.

698
00:36:08,766 --> 00:36:11,166
I found out later
that it was not because

699
00:36:11,166 --> 00:36:13,566
I had no talents for research,

700
00:36:13,566 --> 00:36:16,033
but because I did not have
the right approach.

701
00:36:17,533 --> 00:36:19,233
KING:
Hurston had learned that

702
00:36:19,233 --> 00:36:21,500
if you're trying
to collect folklore,

703
00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:24,200
you had to get people to
trust you.

704
00:36:28,366 --> 00:36:30,900
NARRATOR:
Charlotte Osgood Mason,

705
00:36:30,900 --> 00:36:32,966
the White wealthy member of
old New York society

706
00:36:32,966 --> 00:36:35,200
who was Langston Hughes's
benefactor,

707
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:39,666
offered Hurston
a way to resume her research.

708
00:36:39,666 --> 00:36:44,333
KAPLAN:
Charlotte Osgood Mason was
somebody who believed deeply

709
00:36:44,333 --> 00:36:46,533
that White American civilization

710
00:36:46,533 --> 00:36:48,900
was bankrupt and washed out,

711
00:36:48,900 --> 00:36:53,200
and that the key would come
from what she considered

712
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:54,966
"primitive peoples,"

713
00:36:54,966 --> 00:36:57,166
that they had
the childlike energies

714
00:36:57,166 --> 00:36:59,533
and the childlike insights

715
00:36:59,533 --> 00:37:03,533
that would reinvigorate
White American society.

716
00:37:06,533 --> 00:37:08,766
NARRATOR:
Mason supported other writers

717
00:37:08,766 --> 00:37:10,800
and artists of
the Harlem Renaissance,

718
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,733
including Howard professor
Alain Locke.

719
00:37:13,733 --> 00:37:16,666
Mason, whose
grandmotherly appearance

720
00:37:16,666 --> 00:37:19,366
belied her imperious ways,

721
00:37:19,366 --> 00:37:23,366
insisted that her beneficiaries
call her Godmother.

722
00:37:24,533 --> 00:37:25,800
(exhales heavily)

723
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,166
Mason,

724
00:37:28,166 --> 00:37:31,133
uh, was a handful.

725
00:37:31,133 --> 00:37:33,000
She had lots of money.

726
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,200
She liked having
people of color around her.

727
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,300
She first was very interested
in Native Americans.

728
00:37:40,300 --> 00:37:45,633
MCCLAURIN:
She is someone who believes
that she has the authentic

729
00:37:45,633 --> 00:37:48,066
interpretation of what
Black culture,

730
00:37:48,066 --> 00:37:49,533
Negro culture, is about.

731
00:37:51,900 --> 00:37:54,333
 
NARRATOR:
When Zora Neale Hurston
arrived at

732
00:37:54,333 --> 00:37:58,633
Mason's Park Avenue penthouse
on December 8, 1927,

733
00:37:58,633 --> 00:38:02,233
she was presented with
a one-year contract.

734
00:38:02,233 --> 00:38:06,166
The document deemed Hurston
an "independent agent"

735
00:38:06,166 --> 00:38:08,100
hired "to seek out and compile

736
00:38:08,100 --> 00:38:11,033
"and collect
all information possible,

737
00:38:11,033 --> 00:38:14,133
"both written and oral,
concerning the music,

738
00:38:14,133 --> 00:38:18,633
"poetry, folklore,
literature, Hoodoo, conjure,

739
00:38:18,633 --> 00:38:21,733
"manifestations of art and
kindred subjects

740
00:38:21,733 --> 00:38:27,166
relating to and existing among
the North American Negroes."

741
00:38:28,300 --> 00:38:31,400
BAKER:
Zora Neale Hurston was
an employee.

742
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,766
She was employed to collect
for Charlotte Osgood Mason.

743
00:38:37,466 --> 00:38:40,233
COTERA:
She signs a contract that
she will not share

744
00:38:40,233 --> 00:38:44,000
any materials with anyone
or publish anything

745
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:48,300
outside of Mason's approval.

746
00:38:48,300 --> 00:38:50,033
But she's
still connected to Boas,

747
00:38:50,033 --> 00:38:53,800
and she still wants to stay in
Papa Franz's good graces.

748
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,600
♪ ♪

749
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:58,833
NARRATOR:
Six days after
signing with Mason,

750
00:38:58,833 --> 00:39:01,566
Hurston boarded a
train heading to Alabama

751
00:39:01,566 --> 00:39:03,466
with a guarantee
of $200 a month,

752
00:39:03,466 --> 00:39:06,166
money to purchase a car,

753
00:39:06,166 --> 00:39:10,466
and a plan for yearlong
fieldwork in the South.

754
00:39:10,466 --> 00:39:12,566
She also had
a motion picture camera,

755
00:39:12,566 --> 00:39:15,500
a rare and expensive tool
for anthropologists,

756
00:39:15,500 --> 00:39:20,000
that would allow her to capture
scenes of rural Black life.

757
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,500
Hurston felt excited
and, for once,

758
00:39:22,500 --> 00:39:25,600
financially secure.

759
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:27,366
HURSTON (dramatized):
Godmother dearest,

760
00:39:27,366 --> 00:39:30,333
you have given me
my first Christmas.

761
00:39:30,333 --> 00:39:34,633
I mean, the first Yule season
when reality met my dreams.

762
00:39:34,633 --> 00:39:38,366
The kind of Christmas that my
half-starved childhood painted.

763
00:39:38,366 --> 00:39:40,300
Thank you.

764
00:39:43,533 --> 00:39:46,166
(bell clanging,
train engine churning)

765
00:39:46,166 --> 00:39:49,300
(people talking in background)

766
00:39:49,300 --> 00:39:52,633
NARRATOR:
Hurston's new methodological
approach was apparent

767
00:39:52,633 --> 00:39:55,733
once she arrived at the
Alabama home of Cudjo Lewis,

768
00:39:55,733 --> 00:39:59,533
one of the last known surviving
Africans of the Clotilda,

769
00:39:59,533 --> 00:40:02,866
thought to be the
last American slave ship.

770
00:40:02,866 --> 00:40:07,100
Hurston used his African name,
Oluale Kossola,

771
00:40:07,100 --> 00:40:10,800
to greet the man who had
vivid memories of his capture.

772
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:15,033
BAKER:
Interviewing an enslaved person
that came from Africa

773
00:40:15,033 --> 00:40:17,600
was compelling for her.

774
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:21,566
Zora Neale Hurston was genuinely
intrigued and interested

775
00:40:21,566 --> 00:40:24,500
in mapping and understanding
the relationship

776
00:40:24,500 --> 00:40:26,033
between African traditions

777
00:40:26,033 --> 00:40:28,066
and African American traditions.

778
00:40:30,033 --> 00:40:32,566
 
NARRATOR:
Over several months,
she spent time with Lewis,

779
00:40:32,566 --> 00:40:36,100
who was in his late 80s,
in Africatown,

780
00:40:36,100 --> 00:40:39,400
the community he co-founded
after the Civil War

781
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:41,566
with other West Africans.

782
00:40:43,566 --> 00:40:45,866
Hurston brought him gifts of
food

783
00:40:45,866 --> 00:40:48,533
and drove him to complete
errands.

784
00:40:48,533 --> 00:40:52,233
Though she captured 24 minutes
of Lewis with her camera,

785
00:40:52,233 --> 00:40:55,466
it was her extensive, detailed
notes of his memories

786
00:40:55,466 --> 00:40:57,233
and speech that were the
priority

787
00:40:57,233 --> 00:41:02,000
for Hurston and
her anthropological research.

788
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,633
KAPLAN:
As an academically
trained anthropologist,

789
00:41:04,633 --> 00:41:07,933
getting Cudjo Lewis's voice
exact

790
00:41:07,933 --> 00:41:10,100
was very important,

791
00:41:10,100 --> 00:41:12,666
that ethnography should record

792
00:41:12,666 --> 00:41:16,333
with accuracy,
not with translation.

793
00:41:17,766 --> 00:41:20,233
MCCLAURIN:
He's created his own language.

794
00:41:20,233 --> 00:41:24,266
It's a fusion of both
Southern Negro dialect,

795
00:41:24,266 --> 00:41:27,766
as well as some African
words thrown in there.

796
00:41:29,900 --> 00:41:32,900
BAKER:
Hurston's intimacy and support

797
00:41:32,900 --> 00:41:35,966
of his African authenticity

798
00:41:35,966 --> 00:41:39,766
enabled him to open
up to her in an authentic way.

799
00:41:45,066 --> 00:41:50,466
(train rumbling)

800
00:41:50,466 --> 00:41:53,633
NARRATOR:
From Alabama, Hurston headed off
to Florida,

801
00:41:53,633 --> 00:41:56,733
where men worked at felling pine
trees,

802
00:41:56,733 --> 00:41:58,400
manning sawmill camps,

803
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,733
boiling turpentine,
and mining phosphate.

804
00:42:03,833 --> 00:42:06,000
KAPLAN:
She was very interested in
documenting

805
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,033
what she called
"the Negro farthest down."

806
00:42:10,033 --> 00:42:12,166
HURSTON (dramatized):
My search for knowledge of
things

807
00:42:12,166 --> 00:42:14,100
took me into many strange
places

808
00:42:14,100 --> 00:42:15,766
and adventures.

809
00:42:15,766 --> 00:42:18,100
My life was
in danger several times.

810
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:24,400
KAPLAN:
She was often the only woman for
tens of miles around,

811
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,933
with a camera,

812
00:42:26,933 --> 00:42:28,766
with her own car,

813
00:42:28,766 --> 00:42:33,066
with a gun on her hip,
collecting stories.

814
00:42:37,500 --> 00:42:40,233
HURSTON (dramatized):
If I had not learned how to
take care of myself

815
00:42:40,233 --> 00:42:43,600
in these circumstances, I could
have been maimed or killed

816
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:47,833
on most any day of the several
years of my research work.

817
00:42:56,366 --> 00:42:58,200
NARRATOR:
To win the trust of the men,

818
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:00,666
she made up
stories about her life.

819
00:43:00,666 --> 00:43:04,000
HURSTON (dramatized):
I took occasion to impress the
job with the fact

820
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,166
that I was also a fugitive from
justice-- bootlegging.

821
00:43:08,166 --> 00:43:11,500
They were hot behind
me in Jacksonville,

822
00:43:11,500 --> 00:43:13,900
and they wanted me in Miami.

823
00:43:13,900 --> 00:43:16,200
So I was hiding out.

824
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,033
That sounded reasonable.

825
00:43:18,033 --> 00:43:20,533
Bootleggers always have cars.

826
00:43:20,533 --> 00:43:22,466
I was taken in.

827
00:43:22,466 --> 00:43:24,833
HURSTON:
♪ Shove it over ♪

828
00:43:24,833 --> 00:43:28,500
♪ Hey, hey, hey, you,
can't you line it? ♪

829
00:43:28,500 --> 00:43:31,900
♪ Oh, shack-er-lack-er-lack-er-
lack-er-lack-er-lack-er ♪

830
00:43:31,900 --> 00:43:34,500
(clears throat):
♪ Can't you move there? ♪

831
00:43:34,500 --> 00:43:37,666
COTERA:
She realized that no one was
going to share songs with her

832
00:43:37,666 --> 00:43:42,033
or even let her into these
incredibly rich spaces

833
00:43:42,033 --> 00:43:44,066
where people were exchanging
stories and song

834
00:43:44,066 --> 00:43:46,100
and card-playing games

835
00:43:46,100 --> 00:43:50,066
if she didn't bring
something herself to the table.

836
00:43:50,066 --> 00:43:53,033
NARRATOR:
"I had to prove that I was
their kind,"

837
00:43:53,033 --> 00:43:54,900
Hurston recalled.

838
00:43:54,900 --> 00:43:58,533
She sang and danced with them at
their bimonthly payday parties.

839
00:43:58,533 --> 00:44:03,100
In return, they told her
stories, sang work songs,

840
00:44:03,100 --> 00:44:06,633
and played
blues riffs on the guitar.

841
00:44:06,633 --> 00:44:09,600
Hurston often wrote Langston
Hughes of her work

842
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,466
from the road;
the pair, with Mason's support,

843
00:44:12,466 --> 00:44:16,833
were supposed to be
collaborating on a folk opera.

844
00:44:16,833 --> 00:44:20,000
♪ ♪

845
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,633
HURSTON (dramatized):
July 10, 1928.

846
00:44:23,633 --> 00:44:25,333
Dear Langston,

847
00:44:25,333 --> 00:44:29,200
In every town, I hold one
or two storytelling contests,

848
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:33,266
and at each, I begin by telling
them who you are and all,

849
00:44:33,266 --> 00:44:36,600
then I read
poems from "Fine Clothes."

850
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:39,166
Boy, they eat it up!

851
00:44:39,166 --> 00:44:43,366
You are being quoted in railroad
camps, phosphate mines,

852
00:44:43,366 --> 00:44:46,533
turpentine stills, et cetera.

853
00:44:48,433 --> 00:44:50,466
Folks began to respond to her,

854
00:44:50,466 --> 00:44:54,300
and even repeat back verses of
Langston Hughes's poetry to her.

855
00:44:54,300 --> 00:44:58,200
They even began
calling it the party book,

856
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:00,933
and asking for her to
bring out the party book

857
00:45:00,933 --> 00:45:04,466
and read something else from it.

858
00:45:04,466 --> 00:45:06,200
MCCLAURIN:
Not only do they like it,

859
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:09,766
they pick up a guitar and
they start putting it to music.

860
00:45:09,766 --> 00:45:14,800
That kind of spontaneous
creativity is amazing,

861
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:18,133
given the harsh conditions in
which people were working.

862
00:45:18,133 --> 00:45:21,700
♪ ♪

863
00:45:21,700 --> 00:45:24,000
HURSTON (dramatized):
Everybody joined in.

864
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,133
It was the strangest
and most thrilling thing.

865
00:45:28,133 --> 00:45:29,966
They played it well, too.

866
00:45:29,966 --> 00:45:31,600
You'd be surprised.

867
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,966
One man was giving the words,
outlining them out

868
00:45:34,966 --> 00:45:37,066
as the preacher does a hymn,

869
00:45:37,066 --> 00:45:39,766
and the others
would take it up and sing.

870
00:45:39,766 --> 00:45:42,800
It was glorious!

871
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:46,633
BAKER:
She was using this contemporary
poetry

872
00:45:46,633 --> 00:45:48,033
that was written up in New York,

873
00:45:48,033 --> 00:45:50,266
bringing it down south,
and then the, the Southern

874
00:45:50,266 --> 00:45:53,000
folkloric tradition would take
it,

875
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,666
turn it up on its head,
and make it anew.

876
00:45:55,666 --> 00:46:00,133
And so she was documenting how
folklore and culture

877
00:46:00,133 --> 00:46:04,000
was actually being
created in front of her eyes.

878
00:46:08,433 --> 00:46:11,266
Much of the impetus
for cultural anthropology,

879
00:46:11,266 --> 00:46:13,333
ethnography, was
called salvage ethnography.

880
00:46:14,500 --> 00:46:18,433
KING:
Salvage anthropology was
the idea that one of the goals

881
00:46:18,433 --> 00:46:22,266
of the anthropologist was
to rush in and collect things

882
00:46:22,266 --> 00:46:25,633
before they were all
destroyed by modernity.

883
00:46:25,633 --> 00:46:29,500
On the one hand,
this was a very noble pursuit,

884
00:46:29,500 --> 00:46:33,400
that you wanted to grab
things before they disappeared.

885
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:38,100
On the other hand, it could lead
you to believe that you were

886
00:46:38,100 --> 00:46:40,633
visiting so-called
primitive societies

887
00:46:40,633 --> 00:46:43,800
that existed in a
permanent present.

888
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,600
 
That they had no past,
they had no future.

889
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:49,733
BAKER:
And that was believed by a lot
of people,

890
00:46:49,733 --> 00:46:52,300
but Zora Neale Hurston
understood that culture

891
00:46:52,300 --> 00:46:54,233
was not being replaced

892
00:46:54,233 --> 00:46:57,500
as much as it was emerging
and on a continuum.

893
00:46:57,500 --> 00:46:59,466
And that was
super-sophisticated.

894
00:47:01,500 --> 00:47:03,466
HURSTON (dramatized):
I am getting much more material

895
00:47:03,466 --> 00:47:06,466
than before because I am
learning better technique.

896
00:47:06,466 --> 00:47:08,566
Am keeping close tab

897
00:47:08,566 --> 00:47:10,766
on expressions of double
meaning, too.

898
00:47:10,766 --> 00:47:15,900
Also compiling
lists of double words.

899
00:47:15,900 --> 00:47:18,733
They, to give emphasis,

900
00:47:18,733 --> 00:47:21,433
use the noun and put the
function of the noun before it

901
00:47:21,433 --> 00:47:23,366
as an adjective.

902
00:47:23,366 --> 00:47:26,000
Example, sitting-chair,

903
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:30,900
suck-bottle,
cook-pot, hair-comb.

904
00:47:30,900 --> 00:47:35,500
I have about enough
for a good volume of stories.

905
00:47:35,500 --> 00:47:39,100
KAPLAN:
She may be our first

906
00:47:39,100 --> 00:47:43,333
Black female ethnographer
documentary filmmaker.

907
00:47:45,866 --> 00:47:49,933
She uses that expensive
and rare film equipment

908
00:47:49,933 --> 00:47:53,233
to document the lives

909
00:47:53,233 --> 00:47:56,500
of ordinary, everyday Black
children,

910
00:47:56,500 --> 00:48:00,466
and Black women,
and Black communities,

911
00:48:00,466 --> 00:48:02,900
providing for us some of

912
00:48:02,900 --> 00:48:04,900
the earliest footage we have

913
00:48:04,900 --> 00:48:07,666
of the everyday visual lives

914
00:48:07,666 --> 00:48:11,533
of Black Southern Americans.

915
00:48:17,866 --> 00:48:20,100
(people talking in background)

916
00:48:20,100 --> 00:48:23,166
NARRATOR:
Hurston next traveled
to New Orleans.

917
00:48:23,166 --> 00:48:25,633
With Mason's
support for another year,

918
00:48:25,633 --> 00:48:28,500
she was able
to rent a three-room house.

919
00:48:28,500 --> 00:48:30,900
She devoted most of
her time to fieldwork

920
00:48:30,900 --> 00:48:33,766
on a topic that she perceived
White folklorists

921
00:48:33,766 --> 00:48:36,966
to be sensationalizing
and misrepresenting--

922
00:48:36,966 --> 00:48:38,566
Hoodoo and conjure:

923
00:48:38,566 --> 00:48:40,833
folk religion and practices
created

924
00:48:40,833 --> 00:48:44,333
by enslaved African Americans.

925
00:48:44,333 --> 00:48:47,466
LAMOTHE:
Hurston's the daughter of a
preacher.

926
00:48:47,466 --> 00:48:52,200
And I think that Hurston had a
strong investment

927
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,133
in the spiritual

928
00:48:54,133 --> 00:48:59,933
life of Black people,
and Black women, in particular.

929
00:48:59,933 --> 00:49:02,933
KING:
The closest that Boas
and his students had gotten

930
00:49:02,933 --> 00:49:04,733
to participant observation

931
00:49:04,733 --> 00:49:06,433
would be to sit in on a,

932
00:49:06,433 --> 00:49:09,000
a ritual
or religious practice

933
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,266
and, and watch it and
note down what happened.

934
00:49:11,266 --> 00:49:16,166
♪ ♪

935
00:49:16,166 --> 00:49:20,200
For Hurston, you had
to jump off the high dive.

936
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:23,100
If you were going to
study Hoodoo or Voodoo,

937
00:49:23,100 --> 00:49:25,933
you had to
do it from the inside,

938
00:49:25,933 --> 00:49:30,866
and so she went through at
least four initiation rituals.

939
00:49:33,100 --> 00:49:35,133
NARRATOR:
One Hoodoo doctor asked her

940
00:49:35,133 --> 00:49:37,433
to chase down
a black cat in the night,

941
00:49:37,433 --> 00:49:42,566
boil it in a cauldron,
and suck on its bones.

942
00:49:42,566 --> 00:49:47,033
Another had her lie naked
and fasting for 69 hours,

943
00:49:47,033 --> 00:49:51,533
experiencing
strange and altered dreams.

944
00:49:51,533 --> 00:49:54,000
The ceremony ended
with the painting

945
00:49:54,000 --> 00:50:00,133
of a red and yellow
lightning bolt down her back.

946
00:50:00,133 --> 00:50:05,566
PATTERSON:
That she succeeded is
a testament to her resilience,

947
00:50:05,566 --> 00:50:08,233
her willingness to
do whatever she had to do

948
00:50:08,233 --> 00:50:10,400
to get her work done.

949
00:50:12,866 --> 00:50:16,133
HURSTON (dramatized):
I am getting on in the conjure
splendidly.

950
00:50:16,133 --> 00:50:18,133
I have been going to every one
I hear of

951
00:50:18,133 --> 00:50:20,333
for the sake of thoroughness.

952
00:50:20,333 --> 00:50:24,566
I am knee-deep in it
with a long way to go.

953
00:50:27,266 --> 00:50:30,933
(children chanting
and clapping)

954
00:50:35,833 --> 00:50:37,633
BAKER:
There was this real mismatch

955
00:50:37,633 --> 00:50:41,000
between the goals
of Charlotte Osgood Mason

956
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,366
and the goals of Zora Neale
Hurston.

957
00:50:44,900 --> 00:50:49,333
Hurston was collecting folklore
to demonstrate the legitimacy

958
00:50:49,333 --> 00:50:52,733
and the sophistication
of Black vernacular,

959
00:50:52,733 --> 00:50:54,033
Black folk life,

960
00:50:54,033 --> 00:50:56,833
of African American rural
culture.

961
00:50:56,833 --> 00:50:59,133
Charlotte Osgood Mason

962
00:50:59,133 --> 00:51:02,133
was employing Zora Neale Hurston
for the opposite,

963
00:51:02,133 --> 00:51:04,400
because she thought
it was primitive.

964
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:07,533
MCCLAURIN:
Zora is collecting what she
thinks

965
00:51:07,533 --> 00:51:09,566
Mason wants to see,

966
00:51:09,566 --> 00:51:14,366
and she's also collecting
what she wants to get.

967
00:51:14,366 --> 00:51:17,533
NARRATOR:
Mason found Hurston's material
promising

968
00:51:17,533 --> 00:51:19,666
and continued her patronage.

969
00:51:21,433 --> 00:51:22,933
Amidst her travels,

970
00:51:22,933 --> 00:51:25,233
Hurston had been collecting
love letters

971
00:51:25,233 --> 00:51:28,866
for a book she wanted to write
about Black love,

972
00:51:28,866 --> 00:51:30,866
which she hid from Mason.

973
00:51:30,866 --> 00:51:32,633
She discussed
her plans with Langston Hughes,

974
00:51:32,633 --> 00:51:36,500
imploring him
to not tell Godmother.

975
00:51:37,766 --> 00:51:40,266
COTERA:
There is a complex
positionality

976
00:51:40,266 --> 00:51:41,700
that Hurston had to adopt

977
00:51:41,700 --> 00:51:44,433
in order to do what she wanted
to do.

978
00:51:44,433 --> 00:51:46,366
So she does this, um, very,

979
00:51:46,366 --> 00:51:48,600
I would say, opportunistically.

980
00:51:50,266 --> 00:51:53,833
HURSTON (dramatized):
July 25, 1928.

981
00:51:53,833 --> 00:51:57,166
Dearest little mother
of the primitive world,

982
00:51:57,166 --> 00:52:00,866
Take care not to
overtire yourself abroad.

983
00:52:00,866 --> 00:52:03,400
I am attempting a volume
of work songs

984
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,033
with music for piano and
guitar.

985
00:52:06,033 --> 00:52:09,466
I shall send you the first song
as soon as I get it finished

986
00:52:09,466 --> 00:52:12,300
to see if you like it.

987
00:52:15,366 --> 00:52:17,000
KAPLAN:
During the period
when she's collecting

988
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,400
some of her
greatest anthropological

989
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:21,633
and ethnographic work,

990
00:52:21,633 --> 00:52:24,800
Hurston is collecting material

991
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:28,000
she doesn't have legal claim to.

992
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:30,300
COTERA:
Charlotte Osgood Mason

993
00:52:30,300 --> 00:52:33,333
also controlled
Hurston's expenses.

994
00:52:33,333 --> 00:52:36,733
She had to list everything that
she purchased

995
00:52:36,733 --> 00:52:38,266
with Mason's money,

996
00:52:38,266 --> 00:52:41,300
down to feminine, quote-unquote
"feminine products."

997
00:52:42,866 --> 00:52:45,000
NARRATOR:
Hurston once confided
in Hughes

998
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:47,500
how Mason's detailed oversight

999
00:52:47,500 --> 00:52:51,466
and periodic angry outbursts
affected her.

1000
00:52:51,466 --> 00:52:53,566
HURSTON (dramatized):
It destroys my self-respect

1001
00:52:53,566 --> 00:52:56,633
and utterly
demoralizes me for weeks.

1002
00:52:56,633 --> 00:52:58,800
I do care for her deeply.

1003
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,533
That is why I can't
endure to get at odds with her.

1004
00:53:02,533 --> 00:53:05,000
I don't want anything
but to get at my work

1005
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,766
with the least possible trouble.

1006
00:53:08,766 --> 00:53:11,033
COTERA:
She is agreeing to certain
strictures

1007
00:53:11,033 --> 00:53:13,100
on the Osgood Mason side,

1008
00:53:13,100 --> 00:53:15,933
and while at the same
time reaching out to Boas

1009
00:53:15,933 --> 00:53:17,733
and keeping those fires lit.

1010
00:53:19,233 --> 00:53:21,300
KAPLAN:
He's a very important voice.

1011
00:53:21,300 --> 00:53:23,866
He is the gatekeeper
of anthropology,

1012
00:53:23,866 --> 00:53:28,066
who also is an influential

1013
00:53:28,066 --> 00:53:31,166
and an important anti-racist.

1014
00:53:33,533 --> 00:53:39,133
Mason was a profoundly
anti-academic person.

1015
00:53:39,133 --> 00:53:42,100
She had these notions of
folklore

1016
00:53:42,100 --> 00:53:43,533
that it had to be kept pure

1017
00:53:43,533 --> 00:53:46,600
and kept away from the
academics.

1018
00:53:48,066 --> 00:53:52,733
HURSTON (dramatized):
My dear Dr. Boas, I was very
proud to hear from you.

1019
00:53:52,733 --> 00:53:54,933
I have wanted to write you,

1020
00:53:54,933 --> 00:53:58,933
but a promise was exacted of me
that I would write no one.

1021
00:53:58,933 --> 00:54:02,166
Of course, I have intended from
the very beginning

1022
00:54:02,166 --> 00:54:06,066
to show you what I have,
but after I had returned.

1023
00:54:06,066 --> 00:54:08,300
Thus I could keep my word

1024
00:54:08,300 --> 00:54:10,966
and at the same time have your
guidance.

1025
00:54:10,966 --> 00:54:15,800
The experience that I had under
you was a splendid foundation.

1026
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:19,133
I know where to look and how.

1027
00:54:20,700 --> 00:54:22,233
NARRATOR:
Four months later,

1028
00:54:22,233 --> 00:54:23,733
from a small, secluded cottage

1029
00:54:23,733 --> 00:54:25,866
she rented in Eau Gallie,
Florida,

1030
00:54:25,866 --> 00:54:27,666
Hurston updated Boas,

1031
00:54:27,666 --> 00:54:30,166
that she was
"sitting down to write up"

1032
00:54:30,166 --> 00:54:34,133
the "more than 95,000
words of story material,

1033
00:54:34,133 --> 00:54:36,100
"collection
of children's games,

1034
00:54:36,100 --> 00:54:39,533
and conjure and
religious material."

1035
00:54:39,533 --> 00:54:41,466
HURSTON (dramatized):
Dear Langston,

1036
00:54:41,466 --> 00:54:45,100
I am just beginning to hit my
stride.

1037
00:54:45,100 --> 00:54:46,900
I not only want to
present the material

1038
00:54:46,900 --> 00:54:49,633
with all the life
and color of my people,

1039
00:54:49,633 --> 00:54:51,733
I want to leave no loopholes

1040
00:54:51,733 --> 00:54:55,400
for the scientific crowd to rend
and tear us.

1041
00:54:57,500 --> 00:55:00,300
MCCLAURIN:
Zora also wants to write
for the folk.

1042
00:55:00,300 --> 00:55:03,133
She's thinking of how
to take this data

1043
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:06,633
that she's collecting as part
of her formal research

1044
00:55:06,633 --> 00:55:09,266
and then translate it
into a form

1045
00:55:09,266 --> 00:55:11,200
that is then going to be
accessible

1046
00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:14,233
to the people she got
it from originally.

1047
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:22,233
(men singing, tools clanging)

1048
00:55:26,366 --> 00:55:29,133
HURSTON:
A railroad rail weighs
900 pounds.

1049
00:55:29,133 --> 00:55:31,133
And the men have to take
these lining bars

1050
00:55:31,133 --> 00:55:32,866
and get it in shape to spike it
down.

1051
00:55:32,866 --> 00:55:35,833
And while they're doing that,
they have a chant.

1052
00:55:35,833 --> 00:55:38,633
They use the rhythm
to work it into place.

1053
00:55:42,833 --> 00:55:44,633
They don't have to
look at the rail,

1054
00:55:44,633 --> 00:55:47,733
'cause that's the captain's
job to see when it's right.

1055
00:55:47,733 --> 00:55:50,966
Whatever song he starts, if it's
a fast rhythm, they work fast,

1056
00:55:50,966 --> 00:55:52,500
and if it's a slow one, well,

1057
00:55:52,500 --> 00:55:54,566
they work, you know,
a little slower,

1058
00:55:54,566 --> 00:55:56,266
but they get just as much work
done, it seems,

1059
00:55:56,266 --> 00:55:57,633
somehow or another.

1060
00:55:57,633 --> 00:56:00,733
(men singing)

1061
00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:06,766
HURSTON:
And then the boss hollers,
"Bring on the hammer gang,"

1062
00:56:06,766 --> 00:56:09,666
and they start to spiking it
down.

1063
00:56:09,666 --> 00:56:12,266
(playing rhythm)

1064
00:56:20,300 --> 00:56:22,333
(men laughing)

1065
00:56:24,933 --> 00:56:30,533
♪ ♪

1066
00:56:30,533 --> 00:56:33,000
HURSTON (dramatized):
Darling Godmother, at last

1067
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:36,400
"Barracoon"
is ready for your eyes.

1068
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:39,366
I pray so earnestly
that I have done something

1069
00:56:39,366 --> 00:56:43,800
that can come somewhere
near your expectations.

1070
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:47,566
NARRATOR:
In 1931, with
Mason's continued support,

1071
00:56:47,566 --> 00:56:50,233
Hurston finished a book-length
manuscript

1072
00:56:50,233 --> 00:56:52,300
based on the interview she had
conducted

1073
00:56:52,300 --> 00:56:55,833
three years before
with Cudjo Lewis.

1074
00:56:55,833 --> 00:57:00,800
Hurston began submitting
"Barracoon" to publishers.

1075
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:03,700
MCCLAURIN:
Zora was very committed to
authenticity.

1076
00:57:03,700 --> 00:57:05,900
She wrote that book in dialect.

1077
00:57:05,900 --> 00:57:07,800
She tried to replicate

1078
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:10,600
Cudjo's own language.

1079
00:57:13,066 --> 00:57:17,000
Publishers wanted her to
translate it for White readers

1080
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:21,366
into Standard English,
and she refused.

1081
00:57:21,366 --> 00:57:23,600
BAKER:
That was the authenticity,

1082
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:26,933
that was scientifically
valid and genuine,

1083
00:57:26,933 --> 00:57:30,333
and she did not
want to go against that.

1084
00:57:30,333 --> 00:57:33,766
I think that was
an important form of resistance.

1085
00:57:36,233 --> 00:57:38,600
MCCLAURIN:
That speaks to her belief

1086
00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:42,300
that there was value
in the way that Cudjo

1087
00:57:42,300 --> 00:57:46,400
had created his own
form of communication.

1088
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,100
That value did
not need to be diluted

1089
00:57:49,100 --> 00:57:52,533
or translated
for a White audience.

1090
00:58:00,166 --> 00:58:03,200
(seagulls squawking)

1091
00:58:06,100 --> 00:58:09,233
NARRATOR:
Hurston had
other publishing successes.

1092
00:58:09,233 --> 00:58:12,433
Her ethnographic writing
debuted the previous year

1093
00:58:12,433 --> 00:58:15,933
in "The Journal
of American Folk-Lore."

1094
00:58:15,933 --> 00:58:17,566
With Godmother's approval,

1095
00:58:17,566 --> 00:58:21,333
she had submitted "Dance Songs
and Tales from the Bahamas,"

1096
00:58:21,333 --> 00:58:24,466
based on three months
of fieldwork in the country.

1097
00:58:24,466 --> 00:58:26,700
♪ ♪

1098
00:58:26,700 --> 00:58:28,933
MAN:
How do you learn most of your
songs?

1099
00:58:28,933 --> 00:58:31,266
HURSTON:
I learn 'em, I just get in the
crowd with the people,

1100
00:58:31,266 --> 00:58:34,100
and if they're singing,
then I listen as best I can

1101
00:58:34,100 --> 00:58:36,500
and I start to joining in with
a phrase or two,

1102
00:58:36,500 --> 00:58:39,166
and then finally, I get so I can
sing a verse

1103
00:58:39,166 --> 00:58:42,000
and then I keep
on till I learn all the songs

1104
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:44,900
and all the verses,

1105
00:58:44,900 --> 00:58:47,200
then I sing 'em back
to the people until they tell me

1106
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:50,400
that I can sing 'em just like
them, and then I take part

1107
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:51,966
and I try it out on
different people

1108
00:58:51,966 --> 00:58:55,733
who already know the song
until they are quite satisfied

1109
00:58:55,733 --> 00:58:58,400
that I know it, and
then I carry it in my memory.

1110
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:03,333
(man singing indistinctly)

1111
00:59:03,333 --> 00:59:06,166
NARRATOR:
In 1931, the "Journal" printed

1112
00:59:06,166 --> 00:59:08,500
Hurston's 100-page article

1113
00:59:08,500 --> 00:59:10,233
"Hoodoo in America,"

1114
00:59:10,233 --> 00:59:13,300
which began cementing
her as the American authority

1115
00:59:13,300 --> 00:59:15,100
on the topic.

1116
00:59:16,700 --> 00:59:19,433
When she wasn't trying
to find a home for "Barracoon,"

1117
00:59:19,433 --> 00:59:23,133
Hurston spent
much of 1931 focused on theater,

1118
00:59:23,133 --> 00:59:26,600
including her play
"The Great Day."

1119
00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:28,766
It was a showcase of
Black culture

1120
00:59:28,766 --> 00:59:33,933
that incorporated her Bahamian
ethnographic research.

1121
00:59:33,933 --> 00:59:37,566
Mason very reluctantly
supported the production,

1122
00:59:37,566 --> 00:59:40,300
and the stakes
for Hurston were high.

1123
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,233
KAPLAN:
Most of the great artists of the
Harlem Renaissance

1124
00:59:46,233 --> 00:59:49,933
had their money in Black
fiction.

1125
00:59:49,933 --> 00:59:52,166
Hurston believed deeply

1126
00:59:52,166 --> 00:59:55,066
that it was going to be Black
drama

1127
00:59:55,066 --> 00:59:58,700
brought to wide audiences that
was going to do more

1128
00:59:58,700 --> 01:00:02,733
to counter
racism than anything else.

1129
01:00:02,733 --> 01:00:05,666
HURSTON (clapping): ♪ Oh, Mama,
come see that crow ♪

1130
01:00:05,666 --> 01:00:09,200
♪ See how he fly, oh ♪

1131
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:10,333
BAKER: Zora Neale Hurston

1132
01:00:10,333 --> 01:00:12,733
really believed that you could
not just

1133
01:00:12,733 --> 01:00:15,500
read the folklore on the page.

1134
01:00:15,500 --> 01:00:17,933
She believed
that you had to perform it,

1135
01:00:17,933 --> 01:00:19,400
that you had to see it,

1136
01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:21,066
you had to hear it,
you had to feel it.

1137
01:00:21,066 --> 01:00:23,266
All your senses need
to be engaged in

1138
01:00:23,266 --> 01:00:25,800
this beautiful creation.

1139
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:27,733
HURSTON:
But what they're talking about
is what we know

1140
01:00:27,733 --> 01:00:30,966
in the United States as a
buzzard.

1141
01:00:30,966 --> 01:00:32,400
And the buzzard comes to get
something to eat.

1142
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:35,500
And they are talking about
it and they dance it.

1143
01:00:35,500 --> 01:00:38,300
KAPLAN:
She was running up
incredible debt.

1144
01:00:38,300 --> 01:00:41,466
Everybody was opposed
to what she was trying to do.

1145
01:00:41,466 --> 01:00:45,933
(audience murmuring)

1146
01:00:45,933 --> 01:00:49,333
NARRATOR:
On January 10, 1932,

1147
01:00:49,333 --> 01:00:51,333
"The Great Day" premiered on
Broadway

1148
01:00:51,333 --> 01:00:53,800
at the John Golden Theatre.

1149
01:00:53,800 --> 01:00:57,666
HURSTON:
♪ You may leave and go to
Halimuh Fack ♪

1150
01:00:57,666 --> 01:01:01,366
♪ But my slow drag will
bring you back ♪

1151
01:01:01,366 --> 01:01:05,266
NARRATOR:
"The New York Herald Tribune"
praised her production

1152
01:01:05,266 --> 01:01:08,800
as "the real thing;
unadulterated and not fixed

1153
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:12,066
and fussed up
for the purposes of commerce."

1154
01:01:12,066 --> 01:01:14,400
HURSTON:
♪ Oh, Mama, come see that crow ♪

1155
01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:16,233
Caw!

1156
01:01:16,233 --> 01:01:19,266
(audience cheering)

1157
01:01:19,266 --> 01:01:21,700
♪ ♪

1158
01:01:21,700 --> 01:01:24,200
NARRATOR:
Despite the show's promising
reviews,

1159
01:01:24,200 --> 01:01:26,466
no producer picked it up.

1160
01:01:26,466 --> 01:01:30,500
KAPLAN:
It was an enormous
disappointment for her,

1161
01:01:30,500 --> 01:01:32,900
one of
the heartbreaks of her life.

1162
01:01:32,900 --> 01:01:35,800
She thought it was going to be
the artistic production

1163
01:01:35,800 --> 01:01:39,300
that told people who she was.

1164
01:01:41,133 --> 01:01:44,100
NARRATOR:
Sick, exhausted, and bankrupt,

1165
01:01:44,100 --> 01:01:47,900
in April, Hurston reached
out to Mason for financial help

1166
01:01:47,900 --> 01:01:51,833
as she packed up to
relocate to Eatonville.

1167
01:01:51,833 --> 01:01:55,200
HURSTON (dramatized):
One other item of expense,
Godmother.

1168
01:01:55,200 --> 01:01:58,333
I really need a pair of shoes.

1169
01:01:58,333 --> 01:02:00,966
You remember that we discussed
the matter in the fall

1170
01:02:00,966 --> 01:02:05,133
and agreed that I should
own only one pair at a time.

1171
01:02:05,133 --> 01:02:09,766
I bought a pair in mid-December
and they have held up until now.

1172
01:02:09,766 --> 01:02:13,300
My big toe is about
to burst out of my right shoe

1173
01:02:13,300 --> 01:02:17,300
and so I must
do something about it.

1174
01:02:19,633 --> 01:02:21,700
NARRATOR:
Hurston's relationship with
Mason,

1175
01:02:21,700 --> 01:02:26,433
almost five years of support,
had soured over time.

1176
01:02:26,433 --> 01:02:28,733
Mason paid
Hurston's theater bills

1177
01:02:28,733 --> 01:02:32,000
and came through with
six dollars for the new shoes,

1178
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:36,133
money for a one-way ticket,
and $75 in spending money.

1179
01:02:37,666 --> 01:02:40,633
KAPLAN:
Charlotte Osgood Mason was
unable

1180
01:02:40,633 --> 01:02:42,733
to control Zora Neale Hurston.

1181
01:02:42,733 --> 01:02:45,800
It would be like trying to
get a shooting star

1182
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:47,500
into a Mason jar.

1183
01:02:49,233 --> 01:02:52,500
And Charlotte Osgood Mason
could not be controlled

1184
01:02:52,500 --> 01:02:55,733
by Zora Neale Hurston.

1185
01:02:55,733 --> 01:03:00,200
NARRATOR:
Hurston's last check from Mason
arrived in October 1932,

1186
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:04,666
just as the nation was heading
toward record unemployment.

1187
01:03:06,666 --> 01:03:10,333
The Great Depression had dashed
the dreams of many Americans.

1188
01:03:12,133 --> 01:03:14,300
Hurston had hoped for a teaching
position in Florida

1189
01:03:14,300 --> 01:03:18,466
that did not materialize.

1190
01:03:18,466 --> 01:03:20,733
Income from periodic
writings never secured her

1191
01:03:20,733 --> 01:03:23,966
enough money on which to live.

1192
01:03:23,966 --> 01:03:26,100
KAPLAN:
It wasn't just that Zora Neale
Hurston

1193
01:03:26,100 --> 01:03:27,733
lost a meal ticket.

1194
01:03:27,733 --> 01:03:30,900
She honestly did lose
somebody she saw

1195
01:03:30,900 --> 01:03:34,466
as a kind of spiritual mother.

1196
01:03:34,466 --> 01:03:38,100
NARRATOR:
Hurston had not just lost her
relationship with Mason.

1197
01:03:38,100 --> 01:03:39,366
A year earlier,

1198
01:03:39,366 --> 01:03:42,066
her friendship with
Langston Hughes had ended

1199
01:03:42,066 --> 01:03:46,933
on very bad terms, in part over
their collaboration "Mule Bone,"

1200
01:03:46,933 --> 01:03:49,766
a comedic play based on one of
Hurston's

1201
01:03:49,766 --> 01:03:53,866
unpublished Eatonville tales.

1202
01:03:53,866 --> 01:03:55,433
KAPLAN:
He and Zora Neale Hurston

1203
01:03:55,433 --> 01:03:59,933
were enormously important to one
another in every sense:

1204
01:03:59,933 --> 01:04:04,400
emotionally, aesthetically,
intellectually.

1205
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:07,300
And when
their relationship exploded,

1206
01:04:07,300 --> 01:04:11,300
they were both
profoundly wounded by it.

1207
01:04:17,333 --> 01:04:18,900
(ship horn blows)

1208
01:04:20,266 --> 01:04:22,133
NARRATOR:
When Hurston's mentors at
Columbia

1209
01:04:22,133 --> 01:04:26,033
failed to facilitate
funding for her research,

1210
01:04:26,033 --> 01:04:28,566
she turned to
the Guggenheim Foundation.

1211
01:04:28,566 --> 01:04:32,366
On July 25, 1933, Hurston
submitted

1212
01:04:32,366 --> 01:04:36,166
an application for a fellowship
focused on anthropology

1213
01:04:36,166 --> 01:04:40,000
to continue the work she had
begun in New Orleans.

1214
01:04:41,266 --> 01:04:43,433
HURSTON (dramatized):
My ultimate purpose as a student

1215
01:04:43,433 --> 01:04:47,800
is to increase the general
knowledge concerning my people,

1216
01:04:47,800 --> 01:04:51,866
to advance science and the
musical arts among my people,

1217
01:04:51,866 --> 01:04:56,700
but in the Negro way and
away from the White man's way.

1218
01:04:56,700 --> 01:05:01,300
DUNBAR:
"The Negro way" means
in a way that is respectful,

1219
01:05:01,300 --> 01:05:07,800
that is set on
debunking Black inferiority.

1220
01:05:07,800 --> 01:05:13,366
I think it speaks to her,
again, desire

1221
01:05:13,366 --> 01:05:16,300
 
to participate in the knowledge
production of anthropology.

1222
01:05:17,700 --> 01:05:19,733
KING:
Hurston is an early
practitioner

1223
01:05:19,733 --> 01:05:21,666
of what would later come to be
called

1224
01:05:21,666 --> 01:05:23,766
native anthropology.

1225
01:05:23,766 --> 01:05:26,866
That is to say, she's someone
from the communities

1226
01:05:26,866 --> 01:05:29,733
that she is studying.

1227
01:05:31,266 --> 01:05:33,233
NARRATOR:
Hurston chose
long-time mentor

1228
01:05:33,233 --> 01:05:36,933
and "Journal of American
Folk-Lore" editor Ruth Benedict,

1229
01:05:36,933 --> 01:05:39,866
Franz Boas, and three others--

1230
01:05:39,866 --> 01:05:42,166
people she felt
supported her goals--

1231
01:05:42,166 --> 01:05:45,400
to submit recommendations.

1232
01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:51,933
KAPLAN:
Most of the letters in her file
are extremely problematic.

1233
01:05:51,933 --> 01:05:53,966
NARRATOR:
Papa Franz wrote,

1234
01:05:53,966 --> 01:05:56,633
"On the whole, her methods
are more journalistic

1235
01:05:56,633 --> 01:05:58,133
"than scientific,

1236
01:05:58,133 --> 01:06:00,300
"and I am not
under the impression

1237
01:06:00,300 --> 01:06:02,266
"that she is just the right
caliber

1238
01:06:02,266 --> 01:06:04,200
for a Guggenheim Fellowship."

1239
01:06:04,200 --> 01:06:08,300
Benedict assessed that Hurston
had "neither the temperament

1240
01:06:08,300 --> 01:06:10,533
"nor the training to present
this material

1241
01:06:10,533 --> 01:06:13,400
"in an orderly manner when it is
gathered,

1242
01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:16,833
nor to draw valid
historical conclusions from it."

1243
01:06:17,933 --> 01:06:20,033
And added in a separate letter,

1244
01:06:20,033 --> 01:06:24,700
"I don't think
she is Guggenheim material."

1245
01:06:24,700 --> 01:06:29,000
DUNBAR:
Basically, you send her to go in
and collect,

1246
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:33,300
but have somebody who's
trained write up the material.

1247
01:06:33,300 --> 01:06:36,433
Trained, meaning credentialized.

1248
01:06:36,433 --> 01:06:39,233
And I think that's
probably the hardest hurdle

1249
01:06:39,233 --> 01:06:42,533
that she has to get over:

1250
01:06:42,533 --> 01:06:47,900
that she's not just a vessel
for the academy to get into

1251
01:06:47,900 --> 01:06:50,433
these specific cultures.

1252
01:06:52,733 --> 01:06:56,066
KAPLAN:
She does not yet
have the academic credentials

1253
01:06:56,066 --> 01:06:59,400
that are considered
appropriate for Guggenheim.

1254
01:06:59,400 --> 01:07:01,366
Which is not to say
the Guggenheims

1255
01:07:01,366 --> 01:07:03,200
only go to people with
doctorates,

1256
01:07:03,200 --> 01:07:06,233
but it remains an issue to this
day:

1257
01:07:06,233 --> 01:07:08,533
What kinds of credentials are
assumed

1258
01:07:08,533 --> 01:07:13,000
to have to go along
with that kind of recognition?

1259
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:17,700
Did Franz Boas consider her lack
of a PhD an issue?

1260
01:07:17,700 --> 01:07:20,333
Probably.

1261
01:07:20,333 --> 01:07:22,666
BAKER:
Even as liberal

1262
01:07:22,666 --> 01:07:24,700
and as important and empowering

1263
01:07:24,700 --> 01:07:27,833
as Franz Boas and, and some of
the professors were,

1264
01:07:27,833 --> 01:07:30,366
there was still some
implicit bias

1265
01:07:30,366 --> 01:07:34,800
that there was not equality
of intellectual engagement,

1266
01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:35,866
if you will.

1267
01:07:37,233 --> 01:07:39,366
DUNBAR:
That doesn't mean whatever
relationship they had

1268
01:07:39,366 --> 01:07:41,300
was inauthentic,

1269
01:07:41,300 --> 01:07:45,400
but I don't think that the
academy imagined Hurston

1270
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:48,933
as ever being part
of the knowledge it produced,

1271
01:07:48,933 --> 01:07:53,633
or a knowledge
producer in her own sake.

1272
01:07:53,633 --> 01:07:55,966
MCCLAURIN:
At the moment that Zora

1273
01:07:55,966 --> 01:07:59,133
is claiming her space as an
anthropologist,

1274
01:07:59,133 --> 01:08:01,766
anthropology doesn't
know what to do with Black folk.

1275
01:08:02,733 --> 01:08:04,966
They didn't
know what to do with Zora,

1276
01:08:04,966 --> 01:08:09,066
and I think it was
a level of gatekeeping.

1277
01:08:09,066 --> 01:08:12,133
KAPLAN:
She was remarkably forbearing,

1278
01:08:12,133 --> 01:08:15,133
much more forbearing than most
people could be

1279
01:08:15,133 --> 01:08:17,133
in the circumstances she faced

1280
01:08:17,133 --> 01:08:19,433
as a Black woman

1281
01:08:19,433 --> 01:08:22,766
in mostly White society,

1282
01:08:22,766 --> 01:08:26,866
in mostly sexist society,
in mostly racist society,

1283
01:08:26,866 --> 01:08:30,933
in mostly
Northern and urban society.

1284
01:08:37,300 --> 01:08:40,100
NARRATOR:
Zora Neale Hurston was
determined to have a career.

1285
01:08:40,100 --> 01:08:43,466
"I shall wrassle me up a
future or die trying,"

1286
01:08:43,466 --> 01:08:46,633
she had once written
to Mason.

1287
01:08:46,633 --> 01:08:48,700
KAPLAN:
Hurston worked across
many different disciplines,

1288
01:08:48,700 --> 01:08:52,000
many different fields, many
different kinds of artistry.

1289
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:54,166
She worked in drama;

1290
01:08:54,166 --> 01:08:55,766
she worked in writing;

1291
01:08:55,766 --> 01:08:58,700
she worked in academia;
she worked in teaching.

1292
01:09:00,366 --> 01:09:03,800
Often she was
working on her own.

1293
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:06,433
She was not
somebody who could work well

1294
01:09:06,433 --> 01:09:09,300
for very long for anybody else.

1295
01:09:09,300 --> 01:09:12,666
MCCLAURIN:
She alienated a lot of people.

1296
01:09:12,666 --> 01:09:15,233
Zora is the kind of
person, you either love her,

1297
01:09:15,233 --> 01:09:17,166
or you hate her.

1298
01:09:17,166 --> 01:09:19,033
KING:
She could be insufferable.

1299
01:09:19,033 --> 01:09:22,466
The truth was, she was in many
ways undisciplined.

1300
01:09:24,166 --> 01:09:25,866
NARRATOR:
She had once written to her
friend

1301
01:09:25,866 --> 01:09:27,533
the poet Countee Cullen,

1302
01:09:27,533 --> 01:09:31,266
complaining about the
"regular grind at Barnard,"

1303
01:09:31,266 --> 01:09:32,966
"Don't be surprised to hear

1304
01:09:32,966 --> 01:09:34,733
"that I have suddenly taken to
the woods.

1305
01:09:34,733 --> 01:09:37,266
I hate routine."

1306
01:09:37,266 --> 01:09:41,300
KAPLAN:
Once she was done with
something, or someone,

1307
01:09:41,300 --> 01:09:44,600
often she was completely done
and she couldn't look back.

1308
01:09:46,833 --> 01:09:49,200
NARRATOR:
No longer beholden to
Godmother,

1309
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:51,566
or "the Park Avenue dragon,"

1310
01:09:51,566 --> 01:09:54,633
as she once referred
to Mason in a letter,

1311
01:09:54,633 --> 01:09:57,533
Hurston could
freely pursue fiction.

1312
01:09:57,533 --> 01:09:59,733
♪ ♪

1313
01:09:59,733 --> 01:10:02,400
She had been sketching
out a story loosely based on

1314
01:10:02,400 --> 01:10:06,666
the lives and experiences
of her parents in Eatonville.

1315
01:10:06,666 --> 01:10:08,500
HURSTON:
I didn't even have a typewriter
then.

1316
01:10:08,500 --> 01:10:12,566
I got $20 from, uh, "Story"
magazine

1317
01:10:12,566 --> 01:10:14,366
for this short story.

1318
01:10:14,366 --> 01:10:16,466
And so on the strength of that,

1319
01:10:16,466 --> 01:10:19,366
I decided to
sit down and write a novel.

1320
01:10:19,366 --> 01:10:23,233
Took me about seven or
eight weeks to write the book.

1321
01:10:23,233 --> 01:10:25,666
NARRATOR:
Hurston's instincts paid off.

1322
01:10:25,666 --> 01:10:30,166
In May 1934, that novel,
"Jonah's Gourd Vine,"

1323
01:10:30,166 --> 01:10:32,866
was published to good reviews.

1324
01:10:32,866 --> 01:10:36,000
"Miss Hurston has
made the study of Negro folklore

1325
01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:38,100
"her special province.

1326
01:10:38,100 --> 01:10:40,933
"This may very well account for
the brilliantly authentic

1327
01:10:40,933 --> 01:10:44,166
"flavor of her novel and for her
excellent rendition

1328
01:10:44,166 --> 01:10:48,266
of Negro dialect," gushed "The
New York Times Book Review."

1329
01:10:48,266 --> 01:10:50,833
The title was
immediately selected

1330
01:10:50,833 --> 01:10:54,233
for the Book of the Month Club.

1331
01:10:54,233 --> 01:10:57,033
♪ ♪

1332
01:10:57,033 --> 01:11:01,466
Also that year, White wealthy
shipping heiress Nancy Cunard,

1333
01:11:01,466 --> 01:11:05,766
a regular fixture in Harlem
society, published

1334
01:11:05,766 --> 01:11:07,266
"Negro Anthology,"

1335
01:11:07,266 --> 01:11:11,200
an extensive, groundbreaking
collection of music, poetry,

1336
01:11:11,200 --> 01:11:16,266
historical studies,
and examinations of racism.

1337
01:11:16,266 --> 01:11:20,900
The book featured seven of
Hurston's ethnographic writings.

1338
01:11:20,900 --> 01:11:25,633
MCCLAURIN:
Those pieces
are evidence of her theorizing.

1339
01:11:25,633 --> 01:11:29,366
She's really articulating a
theory of how she

1340
01:11:29,366 --> 01:11:34,866
views Negro culture
at that moment in time.

1341
01:11:34,866 --> 01:11:37,700
HURSTON (dramatized):
The Negro is a very original
being.

1342
01:11:37,700 --> 01:11:42,066
While he lives and moves in
the midst of White civilization,

1343
01:11:42,066 --> 01:11:48,366
everything that he touches is
reinterpreted for his own use.

1344
01:11:48,366 --> 01:11:50,800
He has modified the language,

1345
01:11:50,800 --> 01:11:52,633
mode of food preparation,

1346
01:11:52,633 --> 01:11:56,366
practice of medicine,
and most certainly

1347
01:11:56,366 --> 01:12:00,100
the religion of his new country.

1348
01:12:05,700 --> 01:12:09,033
NARRATOR:
That summer, Hurston wrote Boas
about her manuscript

1349
01:12:09,033 --> 01:12:11,066
for "Mules and Men,"

1350
01:12:11,066 --> 01:12:14,133
a book about her
early anthropological forays

1351
01:12:14,133 --> 01:12:15,866
into the South.

1352
01:12:15,866 --> 01:12:18,466
She hoped that he would like
the ethnographic-focused work,

1353
01:12:18,466 --> 01:12:23,066
despite her publisher's request
to add additional material

1354
01:12:23,066 --> 01:12:26,500
to appeal to
a more general audience.

1355
01:12:26,500 --> 01:12:28,233
The revisions resulted

1356
01:12:28,233 --> 01:12:30,600
in Hurston weaving the folklore
stories

1357
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:33,700
into a first-person narrative.

1358
01:12:33,700 --> 01:12:36,066
BAKER:
She wanted a much more
comprehensive

1359
01:12:36,066 --> 01:12:38,933
and much more
scientific sort of tone,

1360
01:12:38,933 --> 01:12:41,800
including a lot of religion,
and the children's games,

1361
01:12:41,800 --> 01:12:43,733
and sort of
almost an encyclopedia.

1362
01:12:46,300 --> 01:12:47,966
HURSTON (dramatized):
Dear Dr. Boas,

1363
01:12:47,966 --> 01:12:49,833
I am full of tremors,

1364
01:12:49,833 --> 01:12:52,133
lest you decide
that you do not want to write

1365
01:12:52,133 --> 01:12:54,766
the introduction
to my "Mules and Men."

1366
01:12:54,766 --> 01:12:57,900
I have inserted
the between-story conversation

1367
01:12:57,900 --> 01:13:00,866
and business because
when I offered it without it,

1368
01:13:00,866 --> 01:13:04,200
every publisher said
it was too monotonous.

1369
01:13:04,200 --> 01:13:07,100
Now three houses
want to publish it.

1370
01:13:07,100 --> 01:13:11,266
So I hope that the unscientific
matter that must be there

1371
01:13:11,266 --> 01:13:16,200
will not keep you from
writing the introduction.

1372
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:19,533
♪ ♪

1373
01:13:19,533 --> 01:13:22,933
NARRATOR:
Hurston headed to Chicago
in October 1934

1374
01:13:22,933 --> 01:13:26,600
to stage a version of
her production of "A Great Day,"

1375
01:13:26,600 --> 01:13:29,600
now titled "Singing Steel."

1376
01:13:29,600 --> 01:13:31,266
Her arrival was met

1377
01:13:31,266 --> 01:13:33,366
with a blur of invitations

1378
01:13:33,366 --> 01:13:36,566
to dinners
and speaking engagements.

1379
01:13:36,566 --> 01:13:38,266
The "Daily News" advised,

1380
01:13:38,266 --> 01:13:40,866
"The fascinating
Zora Neale Hurston

1381
01:13:40,866 --> 01:13:44,033
is too good to miss."

1382
01:13:44,033 --> 01:13:46,600
Hurston received an early
Christmas present

1383
01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:50,433
when her production
so impressed the Rosenwald Fund

1384
01:13:50,433 --> 01:13:52,566
that the philanthropic
organization,

1385
01:13:52,566 --> 01:13:55,266
focused on
African American education,

1386
01:13:55,266 --> 01:13:59,166
offered her a scholarship
to pursue a PhD.

1387
01:13:59,166 --> 01:14:01,800
♪ ♪

1388
01:14:03,466 --> 01:14:04,566
HURSTON (dramatized):
Dear Dr. Boas,

1389
01:14:04,566 --> 01:14:06,800
Great news!

1390
01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:09,566
I have wanted the training
very keenly

1391
01:14:09,566 --> 01:14:13,200
and tried very hard to get
Mrs. Mason to do it for me.

1392
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:16,433
She would give money
for everything else but that.

1393
01:14:16,433 --> 01:14:19,966
I realize that this is going
to call for rigorous routine

1394
01:14:19,966 --> 01:14:23,533
and discipline, which everybody
seems to feel that I need.

1395
01:14:23,533 --> 01:14:25,400
So be it.

1396
01:14:25,400 --> 01:14:26,833
I want to do it.

1397
01:14:28,366 --> 01:14:31,900
NARRATOR:
The Rosenwald Fund
had agreed to provide $3,000

1398
01:14:31,900 --> 01:14:35,333
over two years to
support Hurston's doctorate.

1399
01:14:35,333 --> 01:14:37,433
"The major problem,
as I see it,"

1400
01:14:37,433 --> 01:14:39,866
Hurston wrote in her
application,

1401
01:14:39,866 --> 01:14:42,500
"is the collection
of Negro folk material

1402
01:14:42,500 --> 01:14:44,533
"in as thorough
a manner as possible,

1403
01:14:44,533 --> 01:14:46,100
"as soon as possible.

1404
01:14:46,100 --> 01:14:50,366
"In order to see it objectively,
one must have great preparation,

1405
01:14:50,366 --> 01:14:52,933
"that is if
to be able to analyze,

1406
01:14:52,933 --> 01:14:56,233
to evaluate what is before one."

1407
01:14:57,400 --> 01:14:59,633
For the first
time since childhood,

1408
01:14:59,633 --> 01:15:03,666
Hurston would be able
to focus on being a student.

1409
01:15:03,666 --> 01:15:05,400
PATTERSON:
There was rarely a moment

1410
01:15:05,400 --> 01:15:07,500
that she didn't have
to worry about money,

1411
01:15:07,500 --> 01:15:10,033
that she didn't have to borrow

1412
01:15:10,033 --> 01:15:13,066
or work more than two or three
jobs.

1413
01:15:13,066 --> 01:15:16,700
HURSTON (dramatized):
I have been on my own since
14 years old,

1414
01:15:16,700 --> 01:15:18,366
and went to high school,

1415
01:15:18,366 --> 01:15:21,133
college, and everything
progressive that I have done

1416
01:15:21,133 --> 01:15:23,300
because I wanted to.

1417
01:15:23,300 --> 01:15:24,866
I have had people say to me,

1418
01:15:24,866 --> 01:15:26,966
"Why don't you go and
take a master's

1419
01:15:26,966 --> 01:15:28,833
"or a doctor's degree in
anthropology,

1420
01:15:28,833 --> 01:15:31,033
since you love it so much?"

1421
01:15:31,033 --> 01:15:35,666
They never seem to realize
that it takes money to do that.

1422
01:15:36,933 --> 01:15:38,800
MCCLAURIN:
Columbia at that moment

1423
01:15:38,800 --> 01:15:42,066
has organized all of
its courses around

1424
01:15:42,066 --> 01:15:44,866
salvaging information about

1425
01:15:44,866 --> 01:15:47,666
Indigenous Native Americans.

1426
01:15:47,666 --> 01:15:52,866
What Zora wants to do is
create what I call

1427
01:15:52,866 --> 01:15:56,000
 
an independent PhD
in Negro studies.

1428
01:15:56,000 --> 01:15:57,733
We would call it Black studies.

1429
01:15:59,200 --> 01:16:02,566
She convinces
Boas that she should do this

1430
01:16:02,566 --> 01:16:04,733
independent PhD.

1431
01:16:04,733 --> 01:16:06,566
He agrees.

1432
01:16:08,400 --> 01:16:09,766
NARRATOR:
But just one month

1433
01:16:09,766 --> 01:16:11,900
after awarding Hurston the
fellowship,

1434
01:16:11,900 --> 01:16:15,033
the Rosenwald Fund
rejected the long-term plan

1435
01:16:15,033 --> 01:16:17,333
that she and Boas
developed for her study,

1436
01:16:17,333 --> 01:16:20,866
and informed her that they would
only support one semester

1437
01:16:20,866 --> 01:16:24,400
for a total of $700.

1438
01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:28,700
Frustrated and stressed,
she lodged a soft appeal.

1439
01:16:28,700 --> 01:16:31,200
HURSTON (dramatized):
This is not to over-persuade you

1440
01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:33,733
in the matter
of the two-year plan.

1441
01:16:33,733 --> 01:16:37,100
I am not being
trained to do a routine job.

1442
01:16:37,100 --> 01:16:40,466
I am being trained to
do what has not been done

1443
01:16:40,466 --> 01:16:44,533
and that which cries out to be
done.

1444
01:16:44,533 --> 01:16:46,833
MCCLAURIN:
They decide, and this is the
language

1445
01:16:46,833 --> 01:16:49,100
that is in some of the
correspondence,

1446
01:16:49,100 --> 01:16:52,500
that "Zora Neale Hurston
is like a rough piece of iron

1447
01:16:52,500 --> 01:16:56,333
that needs to be honed
into a fine piece of steel."

1448
01:16:56,333 --> 01:16:57,833
And they want to insist

1449
01:16:57,833 --> 01:17:00,966
that she follow the curriculum
at Columbia,

1450
01:17:00,966 --> 01:17:04,733
which has absolutely nothing to
do with what she wants to study.

1451
01:17:05,966 --> 01:17:09,366
BAKER:
This is after she had already
been a novelist

1452
01:17:09,366 --> 01:17:12,866
and had been a member of the
American Folk-Lore Society,

1453
01:17:12,866 --> 01:17:15,833
and the American Anthropological
Association.

1454
01:17:15,833 --> 01:17:19,800
And she had published for
the American Folk-Lore Society.

1455
01:17:19,800 --> 01:17:22,766
NARRATOR:
Hurston agreed to the new terms,

1456
01:17:22,766 --> 01:17:25,866
enrolled, and
began attending classes,

1457
01:17:25,866 --> 01:17:29,433
but after a few months,
she reconsidered.

1458
01:17:29,433 --> 01:17:30,966
BAKER:
Zora Neale Hurston

1459
01:17:30,966 --> 01:17:33,333
did not want to be in another
relationship

1460
01:17:33,333 --> 01:17:37,233
dependent like, um, Charlotte
Osgood Mason,

1461
01:17:37,233 --> 01:17:38,933
so she was, like, "Peace out."

1462
01:17:38,933 --> 01:17:40,933
Like, "We're not going to do
this,

1463
01:17:40,933 --> 01:17:42,333
because I've been there before."

1464
01:17:44,200 --> 01:17:47,400
MCCLAURIN:
They have already decided what
she can and can't do.

1465
01:17:47,400 --> 01:17:48,900
And she resist,

1466
01:17:48,900 --> 01:17:52,066
as she has resisted most of
her life against the conventions

1467
01:17:52,066 --> 01:17:56,300
of gender and race,
and now intellectuality.

1468
01:17:56,300 --> 01:17:57,900
It would have been easy.

1469
01:17:57,900 --> 01:18:01,500
She could have gone, studied
those courses and everything,

1470
01:18:01,500 --> 01:18:04,700
and gotten a PhD.

1471
01:18:04,700 --> 01:18:06,133
She chose not to.

1472
01:18:07,400 --> 01:18:10,033
♪ ♪

1473
01:18:10,033 --> 01:18:12,200
COTERA:
She was never
going to be the nice and silent

1474
01:18:12,200 --> 01:18:14,866
and acquiescent Black woman,
ever.

1475
01:18:14,866 --> 01:18:18,633
This is not who she was.

1476
01:18:18,633 --> 01:18:22,033
DUNBAR:
It is an unwillingness
to be disciplined in the sense

1477
01:18:22,033 --> 01:18:25,800
of academic
disciplines-- anthropology--

1478
01:18:25,800 --> 01:18:32,500
and disciplined in the sense
that she won't be contained.

1479
01:18:32,500 --> 01:18:34,666
KAPLAN:
There were
very few Black women

1480
01:18:34,666 --> 01:18:38,766
with doctorates of
any kind in the 1930s.

1481
01:18:38,766 --> 01:18:41,100
And it would have drawn even
more attention to her,

1482
01:18:41,100 --> 01:18:42,700
and mostly positive attention.

1483
01:18:42,700 --> 01:18:46,433
COTERA:
Benedict and Boas
went out of their way

1484
01:18:46,433 --> 01:18:50,933
to ensure that Margaret Mead
was able to get a PhD.

1485
01:18:50,933 --> 01:18:53,000
So we have to ask ourselves,

1486
01:18:53,000 --> 01:18:55,233
what other aspects

1487
01:18:55,233 --> 01:18:57,466
of her difference played

1488
01:18:57,466 --> 01:19:00,966
into this lack of support?

1489
01:19:00,966 --> 01:19:04,600
 
NARRATOR:
Hurston, who was likely
44 years old by then,

1490
01:19:04,600 --> 01:19:06,800
decided to
stop attending classes

1491
01:19:06,800 --> 01:19:09,533
and focus on
her own writing instead.

1492
01:19:09,533 --> 01:19:13,866
Her book "Mules and Men"
would soon be published.

1493
01:19:13,866 --> 01:19:16,400
"Working like
a slave and liking it,"

1494
01:19:16,400 --> 01:19:18,300
she wrote a friend in Florida.

1495
01:19:18,300 --> 01:19:23,800
"But I have lost all
my zest for a doctorate."

1496
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:26,233
PEOPLE:
♪ Catch this guy ♪

1497
01:19:26,233 --> 01:19:28,800
♪ Never comin' back till
the Fourth of July ♪

1498
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:32,433
♪ Yeah, Lord,
come pay the money ♪

1499
01:19:32,433 --> 01:19:35,600
NARRATOR:
Hurston headed south
mid-June 1935

1500
01:19:35,600 --> 01:19:38,400
to the Georgia Sea Islands,
Eatonville,

1501
01:19:38,400 --> 01:19:40,266
and the Everglades

1502
01:19:40,266 --> 01:19:42,633
on a job to collect folklore.

1503
01:19:42,633 --> 01:19:45,000
Her latest travels
were to facilitate the work

1504
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:48,866
of two White folklorists
recording Negro folk songs

1505
01:19:48,866 --> 01:19:50,400
for the Library of Congress,

1506
01:19:50,400 --> 01:19:54,033
but it wasn't easy.

1507
01:19:54,033 --> 01:19:55,800
Sensitive to Black stereotyping,

1508
01:19:55,800 --> 01:19:58,866
at one point Hurston adamantly
stopped one of her colleagues

1509
01:19:58,866 --> 01:20:02,300
from photographing
a young boy eating a watermelon.

1510
01:20:02,300 --> 01:20:05,700
And, due to segregation laws
in Southern towns,

1511
01:20:05,700 --> 01:20:09,533
Hurston frequently slept in her
car while her colleagues

1512
01:20:09,533 --> 01:20:11,900
rested in a motel.

1513
01:20:11,900 --> 01:20:13,766
HURSTON:
♪ Bluebird, bluebird ♪

1514
01:20:13,766 --> 01:20:16,666
♪ Through my window ♪

1515
01:20:16,666 --> 01:20:18,433
♪ Bluebird, bluebird ♪

1516
01:20:18,433 --> 01:20:22,400
NARRATOR:
Sometimes the researchers
captured Hurston's own singing.

1517
01:20:22,400 --> 01:20:25,700
HURSTON:
♪ Bluebird, bluebird,
through my window ♪

1518
01:20:25,700 --> 01:20:29,033
♪ Oh, honey, I'm tired ♪

1519
01:20:29,033 --> 01:20:33,766
♪ ♪

1520
01:20:33,766 --> 01:20:37,433
NARRATOR:
That fall, "Mules and Men" hit
the stands.

1521
01:20:37,433 --> 01:20:40,166
Hurston opened
her story explaining

1522
01:20:40,166 --> 01:20:45,033
how she had known
folklore since she was a child.

1523
01:20:45,033 --> 01:20:48,033
HURSTON (dramatized):
But it was fitting me like a
tight chemise.

1524
01:20:48,033 --> 01:20:50,633
I couldn't
see it for wearing it.

1525
01:20:50,633 --> 01:20:53,266
It was only
when I was off in college,

1526
01:20:53,266 --> 01:20:55,466
away from my
native surroundings,

1527
01:20:55,466 --> 01:20:58,866
that I could see
myself like somebody else,

1528
01:20:58,866 --> 01:21:02,933
and stand off and
look at my garment.

1529
01:21:02,933 --> 01:21:06,500
Then I had to have the spyglass
of anthropology

1530
01:21:06,500 --> 01:21:09,266
to look through at that.

1531
01:21:10,466 --> 01:21:14,066
MCCLAURIN:
It is Zora's first formal
collection

1532
01:21:14,066 --> 01:21:17,666
of stories, folklore,

1533
01:21:17,666 --> 01:21:21,200
and it cements her as a native
anthropologist.

1534
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:27,166
DUNBAR:
Why a text like "Mules and Men"
is so important is that

1535
01:21:27,166 --> 01:21:31,266
she resists the simple
extraction,

1536
01:21:31,266 --> 01:21:33,066
cultural extraction.

1537
01:21:33,066 --> 01:21:36,500
It becomes an opportunity for
her to tell

1538
01:21:36,500 --> 01:21:38,800
what she feels to be a more
authentic story

1539
01:21:38,800 --> 01:21:42,400
of that Black experience.

1540
01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:45,100
KING:
Hurston is reporting on a set of
experiences

1541
01:21:45,100 --> 01:21:48,300
that she had,
using the first person.

1542
01:21:50,233 --> 01:21:51,933
Whether it's a juke joint

1543
01:21:51,933 --> 01:21:53,866
or a turpentine camp

1544
01:21:53,866 --> 01:21:58,133
or a lumber mill or a Hoodoo
initiation ritual,

1545
01:21:58,133 --> 01:22:02,066
she's taking you as a reader

1546
01:22:02,066 --> 01:22:03,933
into a society that she,
as a scientist,

1547
01:22:03,933 --> 01:22:07,033
is desperately
trying to understand.

1548
01:22:08,433 --> 01:22:10,800
HURSTON (dramatized):
I went outside to join the
woofers,

1549
01:22:10,800 --> 01:22:13,733
since I seemed to have
no standing among the dancers.

1550
01:22:13,733 --> 01:22:16,000
I stood there awkwardly,

1551
01:22:16,000 --> 01:22:19,666
knowing that the too-ready
laughter and aimless talk

1552
01:22:19,666 --> 01:22:22,166
was a window-dressing for
my benefit.

1553
01:22:22,166 --> 01:22:26,666
His laugh has a hundred
meanings.

1554
01:22:28,933 --> 01:22:30,466
MCCLAURIN:
Part of what she's trying to
tell us

1555
01:22:30,466 --> 01:22:33,966
is that your very
presence changes the dynamic,

1556
01:22:33,966 --> 01:22:36,066
and so you have to account

1557
01:22:36,066 --> 01:22:37,833
for your presence in the data

1558
01:22:37,833 --> 01:22:40,600
that you're collecting, as well.

1559
01:22:40,600 --> 01:22:42,900
This idea that you're
objective, when you go

1560
01:22:42,900 --> 01:22:45,500
and observe and
participate in these cultures,

1561
01:22:45,500 --> 01:22:48,500
is really a misnomer.

1562
01:22:48,500 --> 01:22:52,866
KING:
And that is a way of doing
social science

1563
01:22:52,866 --> 01:22:55,800
that we now
take as kind of normal.

1564
01:22:55,800 --> 01:22:59,500
At the time, this
was a revolutionary

1565
01:22:59,500 --> 01:23:02,433
and, as Ruth Benedict
would have put it,

1566
01:23:02,433 --> 01:23:05,333
an "undisciplined" way
of doing social science.

1567
01:23:08,466 --> 01:23:11,933
NARRATOR:
Boas, declining
to write a major introduction,

1568
01:23:11,933 --> 01:23:14,666
submitted just three paragraphs.

1569
01:23:15,966 --> 01:23:18,000
KAPLAN:
He didn't write
a full-scale introduction

1570
01:23:18,000 --> 01:23:21,466
and treat her work with
that kind of seriousness.

1571
01:23:21,466 --> 01:23:24,700
NARRATOR:
The inclusion of Boas's text

1572
01:23:24,700 --> 01:23:26,866
nevertheless helped the
publisher

1573
01:23:26,866 --> 01:23:29,300
promote
the critically acclaimed book.

1574
01:23:29,300 --> 01:23:32,900
HURSTON: ♪ Cap'n got a mule ♪

1575
01:23:32,900 --> 01:23:36,033
♪ Mule on the mount,
called him Jerry ♪

1576
01:23:36,033 --> 01:23:38,066
(exhales heavily)

1577
01:23:38,066 --> 01:23:40,400
BAKER:
I think it's
really both endearing

1578
01:23:40,400 --> 01:23:43,966
but also telling
that Zora Neale Hurston,

1579
01:23:43,966 --> 01:23:47,766
in "Mules and Men,"
begins to blend her fiction

1580
01:23:47,766 --> 01:23:52,300
with her science and
her science with her fiction.

1581
01:23:52,300 --> 01:23:53,766
And I think
"Mules and Men"

1582
01:23:53,766 --> 01:23:56,033
is one of the best examples

1583
01:23:56,033 --> 01:23:59,700
and the first examples of that.

1584
01:23:59,700 --> 01:24:01,466
HURSTON:
♪ I out had told her ♪

1585
01:24:01,466 --> 01:24:06,366
♪ Must be
the hellfire captain ♪
(exhales heavily)

1586
01:24:06,366 --> 01:24:08,500
♪ He had blue eyes ♪

1587
01:24:08,500 --> 01:24:12,966
♪ Lawd, Lawd, he had blue eyes ♪

1588
01:24:12,966 --> 01:24:16,166
♪ Oh, don't you hear them,
a... ♪

1589
01:24:16,166 --> 01:24:18,833
HURSTON (dramatized):
March 7, 1936.

1590
01:24:18,833 --> 01:24:22,433
I think I must be God's
left-hand mule,

1591
01:24:22,433 --> 01:24:25,233
because I have to work so hard.

1592
01:24:25,233 --> 01:24:27,633
The press of new things

1593
01:24:27,633 --> 01:24:30,400
plus the press of old
things yet unfinished

1594
01:24:30,400 --> 01:24:33,600
keep me on the treadmill all the
time.

1595
01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:36,600
HURSTON:
♪ I got a rainbow ♪

1596
01:24:36,600 --> 01:24:40,133
♪ Wrapped and tied
around my shoulder ♪
(exhales heavily)

1597
01:24:40,133 --> 01:24:43,000
♪ I got a rainbow ♪

1598
01:24:43,000 --> 01:24:46,466
♪ Wrapped and tied around my
shoulder ♪

1599
01:24:46,466 --> 01:24:48,766
♪ It look like rain ♪

1600
01:24:48,766 --> 01:24:53,733
♪ Lawd, Lawd,
it look like rain ♪

1601
01:24:56,733 --> 01:24:59,333
NARRATOR:
With the success of her books,

1602
01:24:59,333 --> 01:25:01,733
Hurston streamlined her focus,

1603
01:25:01,733 --> 01:25:05,100
deciding that her
life work was literature.

1604
01:25:05,100 --> 01:25:07,066
But she remained
committed to exploring

1605
01:25:07,066 --> 01:25:10,833
and documenting Black lives.

1606
01:25:10,833 --> 01:25:13,166
PATTERSON:
She said, "I have to keep going

1607
01:25:13,166 --> 01:25:16,333
and answer
the questions about my people."

1608
01:25:16,333 --> 01:25:20,066
And to her, she's talking about
the diaspora.

1609
01:25:20,066 --> 01:25:22,233
She's talking about Black
culture

1610
01:25:22,233 --> 01:25:26,533
 
not just in the United States,
but in the Caribbean, as well.

1611
01:25:28,266 --> 01:25:30,933
NARRATOR:
Hurston again looked to the
Guggenheim Foundation

1612
01:25:30,933 --> 01:25:32,500
for support.

1613
01:25:32,500 --> 01:25:34,400
In this new application,

1614
01:25:34,400 --> 01:25:36,400
she indicated
a unique description

1615
01:25:36,400 --> 01:25:39,700
of her field of learning,
literary science.

1616
01:25:39,700 --> 01:25:40,966
And this time,

1617
01:25:40,966 --> 01:25:42,733
she only asked
one anthropologist

1618
01:25:42,733 --> 01:25:44,633
to serve as a recommender.

1619
01:25:44,633 --> 01:25:47,100
Melville Herskovits,

1620
01:25:47,100 --> 01:25:49,700
a prominent former
student of Boas, wrote,

1621
01:25:49,700 --> 01:25:52,666
"I think it is not
saying too much to state

1622
01:25:52,666 --> 01:25:55,800
"that Miss Hurston probably
has more intimate knowledge

1623
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:59,700
of Negro folk life than
anyone in this country."

1624
01:26:00,700 --> 01:26:04,833
Hurston won a Guggenheim
in March-- the first of two.

1625
01:26:04,833 --> 01:26:09,566
And by the next month, she was
off to Jamaica and Haiti.

1626
01:26:09,566 --> 01:26:12,833
FILM ANNOUNCER:
Join a cult whose roots go back
to darkest Africa.

1627
01:26:12,833 --> 01:26:16,366
Exotic, barbaric:
the cult of Voodoo!

1628
01:26:16,366 --> 01:26:20,200
DUNBAR:
She wants to remedy
to a certain extent

1629
01:26:20,200 --> 01:26:24,566
the sensationalism
that Americans are consuming,

1630
01:26:24,566 --> 01:26:26,966
Haitian culture and Voodoo.

1631
01:26:30,266 --> 01:26:32,300
She feels like she can
go in

1632
01:26:32,300 --> 01:26:35,500
and tell a story about that
religion

1633
01:26:35,500 --> 01:26:38,266
that is
free of the sensationalism.

1634
01:26:38,266 --> 01:26:40,300
(drums pounding)

1635
01:26:42,833 --> 01:26:46,500
NARRATOR:
Zombies existed in the minds of
Western society

1636
01:26:46,500 --> 01:26:48,666
as part of a forbidding,

1637
01:26:48,666 --> 01:26:53,533
sexual, and mysterious
culture associated with Haiti.

1638
01:26:56,233 --> 01:26:58,166
LAMOTHE:
When it comes to Haiti
and Jamaica,

1639
01:26:58,166 --> 01:27:02,600
the Caribbean space,
she is very much an outsider.

1640
01:27:04,200 --> 01:27:05,433
MCCLAURIN:
It's where Zora

1641
01:27:05,433 --> 01:27:07,533
steps into the traditional
anthropology,

1642
01:27:07,533 --> 01:27:09,266
where she's studying the other.

1643
01:27:09,266 --> 01:27:12,300
She is not
a member of that society.

1644
01:27:12,300 --> 01:27:14,166
She doesn't belong,
so she has to figure out

1645
01:27:14,166 --> 01:27:15,466
how to get inside of it.

1646
01:27:16,733 --> 01:27:19,533
LAMOTHE:
I think that Hurston had an
understanding

1647
01:27:19,533 --> 01:27:21,133
that at the root of it,

1648
01:27:21,133 --> 01:27:23,933
whether people in Haiti thought
about and talked about

1649
01:27:23,933 --> 01:27:26,266
zombies as a kind of folklore,

1650
01:27:26,266 --> 01:27:28,466
or a phenomenon
that actually existed,

1651
01:27:28,466 --> 01:27:30,100
that at the heart of it,

1652
01:27:30,100 --> 01:27:32,233
this kind of fascination with
the zombie

1653
01:27:32,233 --> 01:27:33,633
is really about free will.

1654
01:27:35,233 --> 01:27:38,733
 
KING:
She's saying that if
you need a category for someone

1655
01:27:38,733 --> 01:27:41,366
who is both living
and dead at the same time,

1656
01:27:41,366 --> 01:27:46,533
that is deeply revealing about
the society that you're from.

1657
01:27:46,533 --> 01:27:48,100
And for Hurston herself,

1658
01:27:48,100 --> 01:27:50,466
having grown up in Jim Crow
Florida,

1659
01:27:50,466 --> 01:27:53,133
she knew what that category
meant.

1660
01:27:54,233 --> 01:27:57,233
 
For someone to be fully, wholly
alive

1661
01:27:57,233 --> 01:27:58,966
but socially dead,

1662
01:27:58,966 --> 01:28:03,833
socially invisible to the people
she was surrounded by.

1663
01:28:05,533 --> 01:28:09,100
♪ ♪

1664
01:28:09,100 --> 01:28:12,200
NARRATOR:
Months of fieldwork
in the Caribbean had distracted

1665
01:28:12,200 --> 01:28:17,333
Hurston from an intense romantic
relationship with a younger man.

1666
01:28:17,333 --> 01:28:19,433
But she could no
longer ignore the narrative

1667
01:28:19,433 --> 01:28:21,866
that had been
welling up inside her.

1668
01:28:24,233 --> 01:28:27,733
Hurston mixed memory, history,
personal experience,

1669
01:28:27,733 --> 01:28:29,933
fiction, and research

1670
01:28:29,933 --> 01:28:32,633
into a story told
through the eyes

1671
01:28:32,633 --> 01:28:35,400
of a Southern Black American
girl-turned-woman

1672
01:28:35,400 --> 01:28:38,333
named Janie Crawford,

1673
01:28:38,333 --> 01:28:42,500
who lives part of
her life in Eatonville.

1674
01:28:42,500 --> 01:28:44,600
MCCLAURIN:
It's now what we call
autoethnography,

1675
01:28:44,600 --> 01:28:48,333
because it's rooted in some
of what she has lived herself,

1676
01:28:48,333 --> 01:28:52,533
but also what she's
researched in her own community.

1677
01:28:52,533 --> 01:28:55,000
NARRATOR:
In September 1937,

1678
01:28:55,000 --> 01:28:57,966
her book
"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

1679
01:28:57,966 --> 01:29:02,566
was on its way to becoming
a mainstream critical success.

1680
01:29:02,566 --> 01:29:04,366
It is a "lovely book,"

1681
01:29:04,366 --> 01:29:07,233
stated a review in
"The New York Herald Tribune,"

1682
01:29:07,233 --> 01:29:09,766
praising Hurston as
"an author that writes

1683
01:29:09,766 --> 01:29:12,533
with her head and her heart."

1684
01:29:12,533 --> 01:29:14,200
MCCLAURIN:
That book is a great

1685
01:29:14,200 --> 01:29:18,166
illustration of Zora blending
her literary

1686
01:29:18,166 --> 01:29:21,700
skills and talent as a writer

1687
01:29:21,700 --> 01:29:24,166
and also her skills

1688
01:29:24,166 --> 01:29:29,133
and talent as an anthropologist
and ethnographer.

1689
01:29:29,133 --> 01:29:30,833
DUNBAR:
Janie's a storyteller.

1690
01:29:30,833 --> 01:29:35,033
She has this
full life experience.

1691
01:29:35,033 --> 01:29:38,133
She's a survivor
in a variety of ways,

1692
01:29:38,133 --> 01:29:41,866
and she goes home
to tell her girlfriend.

1693
01:29:41,866 --> 01:29:46,300
♪ ♪

1694
01:29:46,300 --> 01:29:48,900
MCCLAURIN:
Zora is doing a gender analysis.

1695
01:29:48,900 --> 01:29:51,666
She's really telling us about
the conditions of Black women

1696
01:29:51,666 --> 01:29:54,833
and what they have to
confront against social norms,

1697
01:29:54,833 --> 01:29:58,966
against a patriarchal society.

1698
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:02,966
HURSTON (dramatized):
"A woman by herself is a pitiful
thing,"

1699
01:30:02,966 --> 01:30:06,266
she was told over and again.

1700
01:30:06,266 --> 01:30:10,166
Besides, she liked
being lonesome for a change.

1701
01:30:10,166 --> 01:30:12,800
This freedom feeling was fine.

1702
01:30:12,800 --> 01:30:14,733
These men
didn't represent a thing

1703
01:30:14,733 --> 01:30:17,633
she wanted to know about.

1704
01:30:19,566 --> 01:30:22,700
LAMOTHE:
There are scenes
where some of the very stories

1705
01:30:22,700 --> 01:30:24,433
that she collected when
she was doing fieldwork

1706
01:30:24,433 --> 01:30:29,600
in Eatonville are
incorporated into the plot.

1707
01:30:29,600 --> 01:30:31,566
MCCLAURIN:
She's also depicting

1708
01:30:31,566 --> 01:30:34,700
the ways in which people
interact.

1709
01:30:34,700 --> 01:30:37,233
That's what anthropologists do--
they observe

1710
01:30:37,233 --> 01:30:39,533
social interaction and document
that.

1711
01:30:41,100 --> 01:30:44,500
And so the novel
is rich with how people gossip,

1712
01:30:44,500 --> 01:30:48,100
and how they make judgments
about things.

1713
01:30:48,100 --> 01:30:50,300
The language is so rich.

1714
01:30:54,400 --> 01:30:57,466
♪ ♪

1715
01:30:57,466 --> 01:30:58,900
HURSTON (dramatized):
The sun was gone,

1716
01:30:58,900 --> 01:31:03,400
but he had left
his footprints in the sky.

1717
01:31:03,400 --> 01:31:07,766
It was the time for sitting
on porches beside the road.

1718
01:31:07,766 --> 01:31:10,933
It was the time to
hear things and talk.

1719
01:31:10,933 --> 01:31:13,733
These sitters
had been tongueless,

1720
01:31:13,733 --> 01:31:18,066
earless, eyeless
conveniences all day long.

1721
01:31:18,066 --> 01:31:22,033
Mules and other brutes
had occupied their skins.

1722
01:31:22,033 --> 01:31:26,500
But now, the sun
and the bossman were gone,

1723
01:31:26,500 --> 01:31:29,533
so the skins
felt powerful and human.

1724
01:31:29,533 --> 01:31:33,866
They became lords of
sounds and lesser things.

1725
01:31:33,866 --> 01:31:37,133
They passed nations
through their mouths.

1726
01:31:37,133 --> 01:31:39,833
They sat in judgment.

1727
01:31:39,833 --> 01:31:44,200
♪ ♪

1728
01:31:44,200 --> 01:31:45,533
BAKER:
We call it

1729
01:31:45,533 --> 01:31:47,666
in anthropology
"thick description,"

1730
01:31:47,666 --> 01:31:52,000
which is throughout
"Their Eyes Were Watching God."

1731
01:31:53,433 --> 01:31:56,900
♪ ♪

1732
01:31:59,566 --> 01:32:03,133
HURSTON (dramatized):
All night now the jooks clanged
and clamored.

1733
01:32:03,133 --> 01:32:07,166
Pianos living
three lifetimes in one.

1734
01:32:07,166 --> 01:32:10,966
Blues made and
used right on the spot.

1735
01:32:10,966 --> 01:32:15,200
Dancing, fighting,
singing, crying, laughing,

1736
01:32:15,200 --> 01:32:18,666
winning and
losing love every hour.

1737
01:32:18,666 --> 01:32:23,533
Work all day for money,
fight all night for love.

1738
01:32:23,533 --> 01:32:26,566
The rich black earth
clinging to bodies

1739
01:32:26,566 --> 01:32:30,166
and biting the skin like ants.

1740
01:32:32,300 --> 01:32:37,400
BAKER:
"Mules and Men"
was science informed by fiction,

1741
01:32:37,400 --> 01:32:39,800
and "Their Eyes Were Watching
God"

1742
01:32:39,800 --> 01:32:42,433
was fiction informed by science,

1743
01:32:42,433 --> 01:32:45,166
because there's very little
distinction

1744
01:32:45,166 --> 01:32:48,300
between the signifying
happening

1745
01:32:48,300 --> 01:32:51,366
on Joe Starks' porch

1746
01:32:51,366 --> 01:32:53,833
and Joe Clark's porch.

1747
01:32:53,833 --> 01:32:57,433
They're the same thing.

1748
01:32:57,433 --> 01:32:59,600
COTERA:
"Their Eyes Were Watching God"
is

1749
01:32:59,600 --> 01:33:03,833
to me to be the most personal of
all of her books.

1750
01:33:03,833 --> 01:33:06,333
I think she's
really laying it out there.

1751
01:33:08,133 --> 01:33:12,633
I feel like she knows it's
going to be an important book.

1752
01:33:12,633 --> 01:33:18,133
♪ ♪

1753
01:33:27,866 --> 01:33:30,933
NARRATOR:
Despite her publisher's robust
promotional campaign

1754
01:33:30,933 --> 01:33:33,833
and rave reviews in national
publications,

1755
01:33:33,833 --> 01:33:38,133
"Their Eyes Were Watching God"
did not sell well.

1756
01:33:38,133 --> 01:33:41,400
What surely did not
foster African American support

1757
01:33:41,400 --> 01:33:43,166
were negative reviews from

1758
01:33:43,166 --> 01:33:45,700
Hurston's Black male
contemporaries.

1759
01:33:45,700 --> 01:33:49,200
Writer Richard Wright
attacked Hurston's book,

1760
01:33:49,200 --> 01:33:53,000
stating that it "carries no
theme, no message,

1761
01:33:53,000 --> 01:33:56,833
no thought," and continued what
he described as

1762
01:33:56,833 --> 01:34:00,666
"the minstrel technique that
makes the 'White folks' laugh."

1763
01:34:02,133 --> 01:34:05,466
And Alain Locke's critique in
a one-paragraph review

1764
01:34:05,466 --> 01:34:10,533
suggested that she was drawing
on old literary traditions.

1765
01:34:10,533 --> 01:34:14,166
Hurston was livid, and she wrote
that Locke knew

1766
01:34:14,166 --> 01:34:18,266
"less about Negro life than
anyone in America."

1767
01:34:18,266 --> 01:34:20,700
"I will send
my toenails to debate him

1768
01:34:20,700 --> 01:34:23,200
"and I will come
personally to debate him

1769
01:34:23,200 --> 01:34:27,533
on what he knows about
literature on the subject."

1770
01:34:27,533 --> 01:34:31,800
Her scathing response
was never published.

1771
01:34:31,800 --> 01:34:34,000
COTERA:
The critical reception of her
work

1772
01:34:34,000 --> 01:34:35,800
by the Black intelligentsia

1773
01:34:35,800 --> 01:34:38,800
is extremely disappointing,

1774
01:34:38,800 --> 01:34:42,300
and does smack of sexism.

1775
01:34:42,300 --> 01:34:47,233
When the novel is dismissed
as a romance or a love story,

1776
01:34:47,233 --> 01:34:52,333
or even worse, as a kind
of dialect novel in some cases,

1777
01:34:52,333 --> 01:34:54,833
what I think is lost there

1778
01:34:54,833 --> 01:34:58,266
is the incredibly complex vision

1779
01:34:58,266 --> 01:35:00,566
of power and oppression

1780
01:35:00,566 --> 01:35:04,600
and racism that is presented in
that novel.

1781
01:35:07,566 --> 01:35:10,333
LAMOTHE:
The '30s was really understood
to be the protest era,

1782
01:35:10,333 --> 01:35:12,200
where the fiction

1783
01:35:12,200 --> 01:35:15,900
was much more explicit in
addressing questions

1784
01:35:15,900 --> 01:35:17,866
of interracial conflict,
of racism,

1785
01:35:17,866 --> 01:35:19,533
and their impact on Black
people.

1786
01:35:19,533 --> 01:35:21,266
By the time
"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

1787
01:35:21,266 --> 01:35:23,533
was published in 1937,

1788
01:35:23,533 --> 01:35:26,466
the Harlem Renaissance had
really kind of reached its peak

1789
01:35:26,466 --> 01:35:27,566
and was on the wane.

1790
01:35:27,566 --> 01:35:31,566
(birds chirping)

1791
01:35:31,566 --> 01:35:33,766
(people talking in background)

1792
01:35:33,766 --> 01:35:35,000
NARRATOR:
For "Tell My Horse:

1793
01:35:35,000 --> 01:35:37,966
Voodoo and Life in Haiti
and Jamaica,"

1794
01:35:37,966 --> 01:35:40,433
published the next year,

1795
01:35:40,433 --> 01:35:42,966
Hurston drew on
the material she had collected

1796
01:35:42,966 --> 01:35:46,600
during her back-to-back
Guggenheim fellowships.

1797
01:35:46,600 --> 01:35:50,000
She filled this second
ethnographic book

1798
01:35:50,000 --> 01:35:54,266
with photographs, lists, music,
and essays

1799
01:35:54,266 --> 01:35:56,700
exploring religion, history,
politics,

1800
01:35:56,700 --> 01:36:00,966
and culture of
Black people in both countries.

1801
01:36:00,966 --> 01:36:03,466
♪ ♪

1802
01:36:03,466 --> 01:36:06,400
LAMOTHE:
The most compelling
parts of it are the sections

1803
01:36:06,400 --> 01:36:10,466
where she's writing about
Haitian Voodoo: its rituals,

1804
01:36:10,466 --> 01:36:13,066
its cultures, its meaning in the
lives of the people

1805
01:36:13,066 --> 01:36:14,900
who are practitioners.

1806
01:36:16,833 --> 01:36:18,533
The political
commentary that she

1807
01:36:18,533 --> 01:36:21,633
provides, the social commentary

1808
01:36:21,633 --> 01:36:23,933
is much more problematic.

1809
01:36:23,933 --> 01:36:28,133
Her Americanness
really comes through in how she

1810
01:36:28,133 --> 01:36:30,966
writes that work.

1811
01:36:30,966 --> 01:36:33,333
There are so many sections
of it

1812
01:36:33,333 --> 01:36:37,400
that don't really center Haitian
perspectives about

1813
01:36:37,400 --> 01:36:39,633
their own culture in the way
that she does

1814
01:36:39,633 --> 01:36:41,833
with her ethnographies

1815
01:36:41,833 --> 01:36:45,566
that are centered
in the American South.

1816
01:36:45,566 --> 01:36:48,800
BAKER:
I just don't think the American
reading public

1817
01:36:48,800 --> 01:36:51,666
was interested
in the critical assessment

1818
01:36:51,666 --> 01:36:54,500
of Caribbean history

1819
01:36:54,500 --> 01:36:58,233
and history
of dictatorship and colonialism.

1820
01:36:58,233 --> 01:37:02,166
Although they were
interested in the zombies.

1821
01:37:02,166 --> 01:37:04,433
NARRATOR:
Though her publisher promoted
the most

1822
01:37:04,433 --> 01:37:07,066
sensationalistic
aspects of her research,

1823
01:37:07,066 --> 01:37:11,300
Hurston's "Tell My Horse"
was not a commercial success.

1824
01:37:12,400 --> 01:37:15,166
Most reviews
were mixed or negative.

1825
01:37:15,166 --> 01:37:19,500
One very positive review must
have warmed Hurston's heart:

1826
01:37:19,500 --> 01:37:21,566
"The judges who select
the recipients

1827
01:37:21,566 --> 01:37:24,433
"of Guggenheim fellowships
honored themselves

1828
01:37:24,433 --> 01:37:26,966
"and the purpose of
the foundation they serve

1829
01:37:26,966 --> 01:37:30,933
"when they subsidized
Zora Hurston's visit to Haiti.

1830
01:37:30,933 --> 01:37:33,166
"I hope the American reading
public

1831
01:37:33,166 --> 01:37:35,666
"will encourage
her further wanderings.

1832
01:37:35,666 --> 01:37:39,000
She ought not
to be allowed to rest."

1833
01:37:39,000 --> 01:37:41,133
Back in Florida,

1834
01:37:41,133 --> 01:37:44,500
Hurston continued writing for
herself and for others,

1835
01:37:44,500 --> 01:37:45,966
including a position

1836
01:37:45,966 --> 01:37:48,700
with the federal Works Progress
Administration's

1837
01:37:48,700 --> 01:37:51,100
Florida Writers Project.

1838
01:37:51,100 --> 01:37:54,533
In 1939, she released
another novel

1839
01:37:54,533 --> 01:37:56,866
and took a job teaching theater

1840
01:37:56,866 --> 01:37:59,900
at North Carolina College for
Negroes.

1841
01:38:03,333 --> 01:38:05,300
The next year,

1842
01:38:05,300 --> 01:38:07,833
her friend, anthropologist
Jane Belo,

1843
01:38:07,833 --> 01:38:11,233
asked her to conduct research on
religious trances

1844
01:38:11,233 --> 01:38:13,433
in Beaufort, South Carolina.

1845
01:38:13,433 --> 01:38:15,266
Hurston eagerly quit teaching

1846
01:38:15,266 --> 01:38:18,833
mid-semester to get back into
the field.

1847
01:38:18,833 --> 01:38:22,366
At Hurston's insistence,

1848
01:38:22,366 --> 01:38:25,600
a camera crew
documented the services.

1849
01:38:25,600 --> 01:38:32,800
(people exclaiming
and murmuring)

1850
01:38:32,800 --> 01:38:36,900
(playing rhythmic song)

1851
01:38:36,900 --> 01:38:38,766
BAKER: That image of her

1852
01:38:38,766 --> 01:38:41,100
playing the drum,

1853
01:38:41,100 --> 01:38:44,700
you feel like she's
coming around full circle.

1854
01:38:44,700 --> 01:38:48,200
You can see her as
a vivid participant-observer.

1855
01:38:48,200 --> 01:38:51,900
You can see that she is
at home at this church.

1856
01:38:54,166 --> 01:38:59,200
(singing)

1857
01:39:04,833 --> 01:39:06,833
MCCLAURIN:
The research

1858
01:39:06,833 --> 01:39:09,333
that Zora Neale Hurston did in
Beaufort, South Carolina,

1859
01:39:09,333 --> 01:39:12,100
represents the culmination

1860
01:39:12,100 --> 01:39:15,133
of her work as
an authentic anthropologist.

1861
01:39:16,766 --> 01:39:19,700
♪ ♪

1862
01:39:19,700 --> 01:39:22,733
(sawing through wood)

1863
01:39:26,166 --> 01:39:29,300
NARRATOR:
"We have been shooting,
shooting, and shooting,"

1864
01:39:29,300 --> 01:39:31,066
the film crew reported.

1865
01:39:31,066 --> 01:39:32,400
"If the gods

1866
01:39:32,400 --> 01:39:34,500
"of anthropological
investigators are with us,

1867
01:39:34,500 --> 01:39:39,700
"we have some
swell photos and films.

1868
01:39:39,700 --> 01:39:43,133
Without Zora, most of
it would have been impossible."

1869
01:39:47,833 --> 01:39:49,966
HURSTON (dramatized):
What will be the end?

1870
01:39:49,966 --> 01:39:52,333
That is not for me to know.

1871
01:39:52,333 --> 01:39:55,866
Life poses questions,
and that two-headed spirit

1872
01:39:55,866 --> 01:39:58,933
that rules the beginning
and end of things called Death

1873
01:39:58,933 --> 01:40:03,333
has all the answers.

1874
01:40:03,333 --> 01:40:06,933
NARRATOR:
At first, Hurston resisted her
publisher's desire

1875
01:40:06,933 --> 01:40:10,066
for her to
write an autobiography.

1876
01:40:10,066 --> 01:40:11,500
PATTERSON:
I think she said,

1877
01:40:11,500 --> 01:40:16,666
"It is difficult to
discuss what the soul lives by."

1878
01:40:16,666 --> 01:40:18,733
I'm not sure she wanted
to do that,

1879
01:40:18,733 --> 01:40:20,300
was ready to do it,

1880
01:40:20,300 --> 01:40:22,233
but she needed to write
something,

1881
01:40:22,233 --> 01:40:25,066
 
because
that's how she made money.

1882
01:40:25,066 --> 01:40:28,466
NARRATOR:
In 1942, "Dust Tracks on a Road"

1883
01:40:28,466 --> 01:40:31,333
was published to great fanfare.

1884
01:40:31,333 --> 01:40:33,100
Hurston promoted the work,

1885
01:40:33,100 --> 01:40:37,833
which helped establish her as
a prominent literary figure.

1886
01:40:37,833 --> 01:40:41,833
MCCLAURIN:
Zora's autobiography is
complex.

1887
01:40:41,833 --> 01:40:43,266
There are those who argue

1888
01:40:43,266 --> 01:40:46,366
that she wasn't authentic,

1889
01:40:46,366 --> 01:40:47,600
that she didn't tell everything

1890
01:40:47,600 --> 01:40:50,233
because the notion
of an autobiography is

1891
01:40:50,233 --> 01:40:52,566
that it traces the life
from the beginning to the end.

1892
01:40:52,566 --> 01:40:55,733
There's a lot
of behind-the-scenes stuff

1893
01:40:55,733 --> 01:40:59,000
that we really
don't have access to.

1894
01:40:59,000 --> 01:41:02,566
HURSTON (dramatized):
I am supposed to have
some private business to myself.

1895
01:41:02,566 --> 01:41:04,166
Whatever I do know,

1896
01:41:04,166 --> 01:41:09,400
I have no intention of putting
but so much in the public ears.

1897
01:41:09,400 --> 01:41:11,633
BAKER:
Zora Neale Hurston's
autobiography

1898
01:41:11,633 --> 01:41:15,200
is itself featherbed resistance,

1899
01:41:15,200 --> 01:41:16,600
she's wearing a mask,

1900
01:41:16,600 --> 01:41:18,200
it's a pack of lies.

1901
01:41:18,200 --> 01:41:21,300
On the other hand,
it is the truth as she saw it.

1902
01:41:21,300 --> 01:41:23,100
It is a memoir.

1903
01:41:23,100 --> 01:41:28,266
You get her spirit, you get
the feeling of her life.

1904
01:41:30,100 --> 01:41:33,000
COTERA:
What I find really
fascinating about that book

1905
01:41:33,000 --> 01:41:36,933
is her admissions--
they're very stealthy--

1906
01:41:36,933 --> 01:41:39,233
that some of
the folklore she collected

1907
01:41:39,233 --> 01:41:43,000
she collected actually
when she was seven years old,

1908
01:41:43,000 --> 01:41:44,400
nine years old,

1909
01:41:44,400 --> 01:41:47,133
when she was a child
growing up in Eatonville,

1910
01:41:47,133 --> 01:41:51,566
immersed in this culture
that she later collected.

1911
01:41:53,500 --> 01:41:56,900
BAKER:
"Dust Tracks on a Road" is
highly edited.

1912
01:41:56,900 --> 01:41:59,600
She had some biting
lines about the United States

1913
01:41:59,600 --> 01:42:03,266
and the role of freedom abroad

1914
01:42:03,266 --> 01:42:05,300
versus freedom here.

1915
01:42:05,300 --> 01:42:09,266
But the editors, they took it
out, and I guess

1916
01:42:09,266 --> 01:42:12,100
Zora was looking forward to that
royalty check

1917
01:42:12,100 --> 01:42:13,300
and didn't want to fight for it.

1918
01:42:15,066 --> 01:42:17,066
NARRATOR:
The book, with
its strong sales,

1919
01:42:17,066 --> 01:42:20,400
validated the significance of
her anthropological study,

1920
01:42:20,400 --> 01:42:22,800
but success did not translate

1921
01:42:22,800 --> 01:42:25,500
into funding for
her continued fieldwork.

1922
01:42:26,733 --> 01:42:29,100
Though she never
stopped writing articles,

1923
01:42:29,100 --> 01:42:31,633
reviews, and opinion pieces,

1924
01:42:31,633 --> 01:42:34,900
she would get by working at a
variety of jobs,

1925
01:42:34,900 --> 01:42:37,166
sometimes as a teacher,

1926
01:42:37,166 --> 01:42:39,666
librarian, and journalist.

1927
01:42:39,666 --> 01:42:44,700
♪ ♪

1928
01:42:47,700 --> 01:42:50,233
PATTERSON:
She still has a lot she wants
to do.

1929
01:42:50,233 --> 01:42:54,533
I think
Hurston had a lot of courage

1930
01:42:54,533 --> 01:42:59,033
to put her ideas out there,
but she was also getting older.

1931
01:43:01,233 --> 01:43:04,300
MCCLAURIN:
It's also the period of time
where she's falsely accused

1932
01:43:04,300 --> 01:43:07,666
of having improper relations
with a minor.

1933
01:43:07,666 --> 01:43:10,866
People abandoned
Zora Neale Hurston.

1934
01:43:10,866 --> 01:43:12,866
That accusation is dropped.

1935
01:43:12,866 --> 01:43:16,466
It turns out that the woman
had a vendetta against Zora.

1936
01:43:17,800 --> 01:43:19,800
But the people who abandoned her

1937
01:43:19,800 --> 01:43:21,533
never really come back into her
life.

1938
01:43:23,733 --> 01:43:26,000
NARRATOR:
When it was discovered in 1950

1939
01:43:26,000 --> 01:43:28,033
that she was serving as a maid,

1940
01:43:28,033 --> 01:43:33,633
Hurston played it as if the work
was just part of her research.

1941
01:43:33,633 --> 01:43:36,000
LAMOTHE:
She's having a really difficult
time

1942
01:43:36,000 --> 01:43:37,400
finding people who are
interested

1943
01:43:37,400 --> 01:43:39,633
in publishing her work.

1944
01:43:41,100 --> 01:43:43,066
DUNBAR:
She's an aging Black woman,

1945
01:43:43,066 --> 01:43:45,766
with no children and no husband.

1946
01:43:45,766 --> 01:43:48,200
The Negro is no longer in vogue.

1947
01:43:48,200 --> 01:43:50,666
And so you just watch

1948
01:43:50,666 --> 01:43:54,366
what happens to Black women

1949
01:43:54,366 --> 01:43:57,466
who almost always live

1950
01:43:57,466 --> 01:44:00,633
in precarity in this society.

1951
01:44:02,533 --> 01:44:04,733
 
PATTERSON:
By the last ten years of her
life,

1952
01:44:04,733 --> 01:44:09,833
she has all of the ailments
of older Black women.

1953
01:44:09,833 --> 01:44:11,600
High blood pressure,

1954
01:44:11,600 --> 01:44:13,233
gaining weight.

1955
01:44:13,233 --> 01:44:15,300
She's still desperately trying
to get enough money

1956
01:44:15,300 --> 01:44:17,633
to continue her work,

1957
01:44:17,633 --> 01:44:21,733
and it's slipping
through her fingers.

1958
01:44:24,933 --> 01:44:27,333
NARRATOR:
Hurston's tendency to speak her
mind

1959
01:44:27,333 --> 01:44:31,933
entangled her in the emerging
national civil rights debates.

1960
01:44:31,933 --> 01:44:35,533
Her opinion on the Supreme
Court's 1954 ruling

1961
01:44:35,533 --> 01:44:39,066
that ended legalized racial
discrimination in schools

1962
01:44:39,066 --> 01:44:42,400
put her at
odds with many Americans.

1963
01:44:43,633 --> 01:44:46,833
HURSTON (dramatized):
How much satisfaction
can I get from a court order

1964
01:44:46,833 --> 01:44:48,900
for somebody to associate with
me

1965
01:44:48,900 --> 01:44:52,966
who does not wish me near them?

1966
01:44:52,966 --> 01:44:56,633
DUNBAR:
People cite her letter
to the editor

1967
01:44:56,633 --> 01:44:59,833
where she disparages Brown
v. the Board of Education

1968
01:44:59,833 --> 01:45:04,733
as retrograde, as anti-Black.

1969
01:45:04,733 --> 01:45:08,266
But she understood
that just having proximity

1970
01:45:08,266 --> 01:45:11,733
to White people did not
make Black people smarter,

1971
01:45:11,733 --> 01:45:14,066
better, more valuable.

1972
01:45:14,066 --> 01:45:17,400
We needed equality and equity

1973
01:45:17,400 --> 01:45:20,366
and financial support.

1974
01:45:20,366 --> 01:45:23,500
HURSTON (dramatized):
It is a contradiction in terms
to scream,

1975
01:45:23,500 --> 01:45:26,633
"Race pride and equality,"
while at the same time

1976
01:45:26,633 --> 01:45:31,300
spurning Negro
teachers and self-association.

1977
01:45:31,300 --> 01:45:35,066
DUNBAR:
She was articulating
something where her investment

1978
01:45:35,066 --> 01:45:39,233
in a particular version
of Blackness was not valued.

1979
01:45:42,733 --> 01:45:47,466
PATTERSON:
She ends up back in
the community of Black people.

1980
01:45:47,466 --> 01:45:50,400
KAPLAN:
The Fort Pierce
community in which she lived

1981
01:45:50,400 --> 01:45:52,900
loved and adored her.

1982
01:45:52,900 --> 01:45:54,933
But her struggles as a woman

1983
01:45:54,933 --> 01:45:57,100
and her struggles as
a Black person

1984
01:45:57,100 --> 01:45:59,566
in racist society were profound.

1985
01:46:02,033 --> 01:46:04,933
 
NARRATOR:
Zora Neale Hurston died from
heart disease

1986
01:46:04,933 --> 01:46:09,266
after a stroke
on January 28, 1960,

1987
01:46:09,266 --> 01:46:11,600
shortly after her 69th birthday,

1988
01:46:11,600 --> 01:46:16,166
in a segregated nursing home in
Fort Pierce, Florida.

1989
01:46:16,166 --> 01:46:20,433
She was working on at
least one novel at the time.

1990
01:46:20,433 --> 01:46:22,366
At her funeral,
over 100 people,

1991
01:46:22,366 --> 01:46:26,033
the vast majority
African American, attended.

1992
01:46:26,033 --> 01:46:28,266
One of the ministers remarked,

1993
01:46:28,266 --> 01:46:30,866
"The Miami paper said
she died poor.

1994
01:46:30,866 --> 01:46:34,000
"She died rich.

1995
01:46:34,000 --> 01:46:36,600
She did something."

1996
01:46:36,600 --> 01:46:42,066
Zora Neale Hurston was
buried in an unmarked grave.

1997
01:46:42,066 --> 01:46:43,866
MCCLAURIN:
As the story goes,

1998
01:46:43,866 --> 01:46:48,200
when you die in a poor house,
they burn your stuff.

1999
01:46:48,200 --> 01:46:49,866
And a Black deputy
sheriff comes along

2000
01:46:49,866 --> 01:46:53,033
and he remembers
that this woman was someone.

2001
01:46:53,033 --> 01:46:57,800
And he literally
snatches materials,

2002
01:46:57,800 --> 01:47:02,933
her belongings, out of
the fire and hangs on to them.

2003
01:47:02,933 --> 01:47:06,066
KING:
She had thrown herself
into the world

2004
01:47:06,066 --> 01:47:09,500
to try to rescue,
redeem the things

2005
01:47:09,500 --> 01:47:12,233
that were held by outsiders

2006
01:47:12,233 --> 01:47:16,566
to be unimportant
about marginal societies,

2007
01:47:16,566 --> 01:47:18,433
and it was somehow fitting

2008
01:47:18,433 --> 01:47:22,166
that the last act of her papers,

2009
01:47:22,166 --> 01:47:26,533
her own legacy,
was itself an act of rescue.

2010
01:47:36,666 --> 01:47:41,766
NARRATOR:
Zora Neale Hurston fell into
obscurity until the 1970s.

2011
01:47:41,766 --> 01:47:45,700
After writer Alice Walker read
"Their Eyes Were Watching God,"

2012
01:47:45,700 --> 01:47:48,300
she began a journey
into Hurston's life,

2013
01:47:48,300 --> 01:47:52,533
work, and death that catalyzed
another Hurston rescue,

2014
01:47:52,533 --> 01:47:56,133
this one led by literary
scholars--

2015
01:47:56,133 --> 01:47:59,366
Black women.

2016
01:47:59,366 --> 01:48:04,300
♪ ♪

2017
01:48:11,700 --> 01:48:15,266
MCCLAURIN:
I think anthropology
hasn't acknowledged her enough.

2018
01:48:15,266 --> 01:48:19,700
Not only for her writing style,
but also the fact that she

2019
01:48:19,700 --> 01:48:23,100
put herself into that
ethnographic landscape.

2020
01:48:24,766 --> 01:48:28,500
How she impacts,
how she's impacted,

2021
01:48:28,500 --> 01:48:30,866
how people see her,

2022
01:48:30,866 --> 01:48:34,100
as well as what she's
collecting.

2023
01:48:34,100 --> 01:48:37,133
And that's unique.

2024
01:48:39,466 --> 01:48:43,766
DUNBAR:
That is what she modeled

2025
01:48:43,766 --> 01:48:46,500
very early, and what the
discipline

2026
01:48:46,500 --> 01:48:48,966
at that point wasn't ready for.

2027
01:48:51,366 --> 01:48:55,700
I think it gives a lot
of minoritized people

2028
01:48:55,700 --> 01:48:59,266
access and legitimacy to
the work that they most value,

2029
01:48:59,266 --> 01:49:03,800
which is to go into
their own communities.

2030
01:49:03,800 --> 01:49:05,966
BAKER:
One of the few anthropologists

2031
01:49:05,966 --> 01:49:08,466
that were doing work in the '20s

2032
01:49:08,466 --> 01:49:11,400
that would sort of hold up to
the integrity and the ethics

2033
01:49:11,400 --> 01:49:16,300
of contemporary anthropology
is Zora Neale Hurston.

2034
01:49:16,300 --> 01:49:19,166
COTERA:
People are invested in saying
she was a Black anthropologist,

2035
01:49:19,166 --> 01:49:22,833
but another part of me
wants to disinvite

2036
01:49:22,833 --> 01:49:25,266
anthropology from her
recuperation,

2037
01:49:25,266 --> 01:49:27,433
because there were so many

2038
01:49:27,433 --> 01:49:31,733
moments when folks worked behind
the scenes not to support her,

2039
01:49:31,733 --> 01:49:35,166
and so that is very painful.

2040
01:49:35,166 --> 01:49:38,366
KAPLAN:
She's somebody who succeeded
against all the odds

2041
01:49:38,366 --> 01:49:41,600
and whose life
was marred by lack of resources,

2042
01:49:41,600 --> 01:49:44,166
who could have done five
times as much

2043
01:49:44,166 --> 01:49:47,200
if she had had the financial
wherewithal

2044
01:49:47,200 --> 01:49:49,033
she so richly deserved.

2045
01:49:50,700 --> 01:49:54,366
KING:
We now recognize
her as being not only critical

2046
01:49:54,366 --> 01:49:56,266
to the canon
of American literature,

2047
01:49:56,266 --> 01:50:00,166
but a figure
whose work as a prose writer,

2048
01:50:00,166 --> 01:50:02,000
as a social scientist,

2049
01:50:02,000 --> 01:50:05,933
is closer to what
we would now think of as good,

2050
01:50:05,933 --> 01:50:09,500
self-aware,
self-critical social science.

2051
01:50:09,500 --> 01:50:13,166
♪ ♪

2052
01:50:13,166 --> 01:50:15,466
BAKER:
Sometimes when
you're ahead of your time,

2053
01:50:15,466 --> 01:50:17,266
you're also an outlier.

2054
01:50:17,266 --> 01:50:21,833
You are marginalized and seen
as sometimes a little crazy,

2055
01:50:21,833 --> 01:50:25,033
but in many respects,

2056
01:50:25,033 --> 01:50:27,900
people that are ahead of their
time are geniuses,

2057
01:50:27,900 --> 01:50:31,066
and indeed she was a genius.

2058
01:50:32,266 --> 01:50:35,033
PATTERSON:
Hurston left us beautiful
novels.

2059
01:50:35,033 --> 01:50:39,233
She left us her vision
of the legitimacy

2060
01:50:39,233 --> 01:50:42,666
of Black people as a people,
as a culture.

2061
01:50:42,666 --> 01:50:45,400
She fought
for us in her writing.

2062
01:50:46,400 --> 01:50:50,233
She fought for Black
women in her writing

2063
01:50:50,233 --> 01:50:52,700
and her anthropology.

2064
01:50:52,700 --> 01:50:57,666
She believed in our worth,

2065
01:50:57,666 --> 01:51:02,433
and she said so
over and over again.

2066
01:51:03,800 --> 01:51:06,800
She jumped at the sun.

2067
01:51:06,800 --> 01:51:11,300
HURSTON (dramatized):
Negro reality is a hundred times
more imaginative

2068
01:51:11,300 --> 01:51:13,300
and entertaining
than anything

2069
01:51:13,300 --> 01:51:16,866
that has been
hatched up over a typewriter.

2070
01:51:16,866 --> 01:51:21,266
Go hard or go home.

2071
01:51:21,266 --> 01:51:24,833
♪ ♪

2072
01:51:43,200 --> 01:51:48,466
♪ ♪

2073
01:51:56,300 --> 01:52:00,333
♪ ♪

2074
01:52:04,700 --> 01:52:08,666
♪ ♪

2075
01:52:14,533 --> 01:52:18,200
♪ ♪