Zora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937.

• Hurston was a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance, a flourishing of African American arts and culture in the first half of the 20th century. 
• She was a skilled anthropologist who documented the rich traditions, dialect, and oral histories of African Americans in the Southern United States and the Caribbean. 
• Mules and Men (1935): This is one of her most notable works of folklore, considered among the first great collections of Black American folklore and a key piece in the preservation of Black culture. 
• Dust Tracks on a Road (1942): Her autobiography, this book offers a personal perspective on her experiences with race, gender, and identity during a period of significant social change. 
• Hurston’s writing, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, is celebrated for its authentic portrayal of Black lives and voices, using Black dialect to challenge racial expectations and promote cultural pride.
• She demonstrated how art could be a powerful form of activism by presenting an empowering and nuanced view of the Black experience, paving the way for other Black women to use art as a platform for expression

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