Before Her Time: The leadership of Zora Neale Hurston
... Blacks, Zora decided that she did not have to constantly focus on the race problem to identify her people because they were more than that. Zora’s eduation at Barnard gave her another way to examine the Black culture she had always had a passion for. “Hurston came to know that her parents and their neighbors perpetuated a rich oral literature without self-consciousness, a literature illustrating a creativity seldom recognized and almost universally misunderstood (Hemenway, 22)”. This is a powerful realization for a Black leader to make because it negates the notions that constantly devalue Black culture and instead recognizes its critical value and importance. Hurston would go to Harlem and her findings would flourish. She would be thrust into an age when “the Negro was in vogue” (Hemenway, 24). For Hurston it seemed that the Negro was always in vogue. Despite this, Hurston and her fellow artist at the time were not always comfortable with propaganda motivated art (Hemenway, 42). “ She felt that black culture manifested an independent esthetic system that could be discussed without constant reference to white oppression”(Hemenway, 221). They created a short lived magazine called Fire!! to exhibit their frustrations. These artist wanted to revolt against racial propagandists and bourgeois subject matter( Hemenway, 45). Ironically, this magazine would require bourgeois readership for its revolutions to make sense(Hemenway, 49). In addition, it seems that their goal to have a purely literary magazine could not necessarily be achieved due to the fact that political and racial issues would inherently be involved. Zora’s leadership was informed by her belief that: . . .the black masses had triumphed over their racist environment, not by becoming white and emulating bourgeois values, not by engaging in a sophisticated program of political propaganda, but by turning inward to create blues, the folktale, the spiritual, the hyperboic lie, the ironic joke. (Hemmenway, 51) This is one of the ideas that made her before her time because she did not want to validate her people’s being through showing that they could do what others, mainly whites, could do but instead by focusing on their unique creativity. “Hurston knew: that the folk were creating an art that did not need the sanction of “culture” to affirm its beauty” (Hemenway, 54). This idea was trying to lead Blacks to see that they need not replicate the dominant group’s idea of culture in order to be deemed worthy but instead continue to express their own true culture. This connects with her view that, “ The artist need not speak for the masses, since the masses through their collected folklore could speak for themselves (Hemenway, 82). The above idea is similar to one that would be espoused by Black leader Ella Baker. Her belief that the Black poor were not downtrodden victims they were eager to fight their lot (Ransby, 278). This is an important Black leadership ideal because if you encourage a sector of your people to feel victimized and powerless it is counterproductive to the uplift. This idea comes from the leaders being connected to the people and truly understanding them enough to know that they are not silent or incapable victims but they have voices which many often forget. Zora used her research and writings to dispel racist stereotypes about Black folklore. She was a dedicated anthropologist that was willing to endanger herself to recover and expose the wealth of Black folklore (Hemenway, 121). Hurston was interested in the universality of human behavior, whether in New York or Eatonville and the ties that all civilizations have to what are often called primitive practices (Hemenway, 125). Zora was not trying to make the Black race better or worse than others but creatively different and equally as human. This came in an assimilationist era where Black intellectuals were stressing similarities of the races and Hurston was proudly advocating the cultural differences (Hemenway, 162). In no way was Hurston naive to the effects of racism or the interplay between Blacks and whites she just did not believe that it had to be the focus of every aspect of Black life. It was as if she, as a Black leader, was trying to aid Black people in looking into a mirror and seeing a clear reflection of themself not a distorted reflection of someone else. Much of her financial support to produce contents to uplift her race ironically came from the outside. This did inform the censorship and the ability to produce of many artist. The fact that many Black artist and undertakings could not be self-sustained by the Black community speaks much to the racial relations of the times. It was as if the white patrons were the authority on what type of art they wanted from the Black community. This is not to say that Black artists did not produce work with their own intentions; it is just that if they produce something that white publishers would not release there were not many other outlets for them to turn to. Hurston too was dependent upon white patronage mostly from Mrs Charlotte Osgood Mason otherwise known as Godmother. This frequent financial dependence from the outside and instabilities in personal and professional relationship prove to be a weakness in Zora Neale Hurston’s leadership. The fact that Hurston, like many other artist, had to constantly depend on white patronage to produce her work did inform the content and progression of her work. H...