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Classroom · Grades 6–12

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston treated the everyday speech, stories, and beliefs of Black Southerners as worthy of serious study and great art, and her fall into obscurity and later recovery show how literary reputations are made.

Lesson at a Glance

Grades
Grades 6–12
Time
One class period (20–40 minutes)
Standards
NCSS Themes 1 (Culture), 4 (Individual Development and Identity), and 3 (People, Places, and Environments); C3 D2.His.4, D2.His.6
Reading
Zora Neale Hurston (profile)

Big Idea

Zora Neale Hurston treated the everyday speech, stories, and beliefs of Black Southerners as worthy of serious study and great art, and her fall into obscurity and later recovery show how literary reputations are made.

Before Class

Students read the profile of Zora Neale Hurston, including the Key Dates and Sources.

Discussion Questions

  1. Hurston grew up in Eatonville, an all-Black town. How might that upbringing have shaped her decision to write about Black life without making white characters or racism the center?
  2. Richard Wright and others criticized Their Eyes Were Watching God for its dialect and lack of overt protest. Is protest the only way literature can be political?
  3. Publishers rejected Barracoon in part because it kept Cudjo Lewis’s dialect. Why might preserving someone’s own way of speaking matter?
  4. Hurston died poor and was buried in an unmarked grave. What role did Alice Walker play in her recovery, and what does that suggest about how writers are remembered?
  5. How did Hurston’s training as an anthropologist shape her fiction?

Activity

Begin with the 1937 photograph of Hurston playing a drum and ask students what it suggests about her as a researcher and performer. Then read aloud a short passage of dialogue from Their Eyes Were Watching God or Mules and Men. In pairs, students rewrite three lines in formal standard English and compare the two versions: what is gained and what is lost? Close by connecting the exercise to the profile’s account of the criticism Hurston received and the rejection of Barracoon. (30–40 minutes.)

Primary Sources

Cite this page
MLA
“Classroom lesson: Zora Neale Hurston.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/classroom/zora-neale-hurston/.
APA
Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). Classroom lesson: Zora Neale Hurston. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/classroom/zora-neale-hurston/
Chicago
Black-History.com Editors. “Classroom lesson: Zora Neale Hurston.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/classroom/zora-neale-hurston/.
Editorial Note

By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.

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