Episode Summary:

In the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was already a nationally known novelist, anthropologist and member of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Yet she saw her publishing income dry up during the Great Depression even with the publication of her best-known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. When she took a job with the Writers’ Project in Florida, her first assignment was to write for the WPA Guide to Florida. In the hands of truth-seekers like Hurston and a young white co-worker, Stetson Kennedy, the Florida WPA guidebook would reflect a wide range of Florida life, “warts and all,” including a report of violent voter suppression in the 1920s—until editors started to push back. This episode follows that conflict.

Hurston also moved the Writers’ Project to record the songs and folktales of Florida culture. We hear from historians and bestselling novelist James McBride about how that work still resonates today.

Speakers:

Douglas Brinkley, historian

Peggy Bulger, folklorist

Tameka Hobbs, historian

Stetson Kennedy, author and Project alum

James McBride, author

Flo Turcotte, historian

Links and Resources:

Florida Memory Zora Neale Hurston Page

Zora Neale Hurston Collection at University of Florida

Florida Memory WPA Page

Florida Memory Stetson Kennedy Interview

NPR: Writer Finds Zora Neale Hurston’s Florida

Further Reading:

WPA Guide to Florida

Go Gator and Muddy the Water by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Pamela Bordelon

Palmetto Country by Stetson Kennedy

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Stetson Kennedy: Applied Folklore and Cultural Advocacy by Peggy Bulger

Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Facial Violence in Florida by Tameka Hobbs

Credits:

Host: Chris Haley

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor and James Mirabello

Writer: David A. Taylor

Editor: Ethan Oser

Assistant Editor: Amy A. Young

Story Editor: Michael May

Additional Voices: Amesha McElveen and Skip Coblyn

Featuring music and archival material from:

Joseph Vitarelli

Bradford Ellis

Pond5

Library of Congress

National Archives and Records Administration

For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Produced with support from:

National Endowment for the Humanities

Florida Humanities

Stetson Kennedy Foundation

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