Zora day—

Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Alabama. A fact that she herself denied, Hurston claimed to be born in several different years and born in Eatonville Florida, the first Black run city in the US. This was to help her appear younger and also of an important city. She was the fifth of eight children. Her father was John Hurston, a Baptist preacher, tenant farmer, and carpenter. In her book Dust Tracks on a Road, Hurston states that her father already had a daughter when she came along and that he was not too keen on having another one.(Hurston 1942:19) Her mother Lucy Potts was a school teacher, and preferred Zora. This was important because her mother encouraged her to make up stories and write.