Biography
A nearly 43-year old Zora Neale Hurston applied to the Rosenwald Fund to take up graduate work in Anthropology. She had completed her undergraduate studies at Howard University and two years of additional study at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she was one of the first women of color to be admitted to the institution. At Barnard, Hurston studied under Dr. Franz Boas, the German-born American anthropologist who became a pioneer scholar in the field of Anthropology and "debunked the prevailing beliefs that Western Civilization was superior to less complex societies."1 Hurston had already worked with Dr. Boas, who sent her to interview Cudjo Lewis as field research in the American South.2 Under the “Accomplishments” section of her Rosenwald application, she wrote that “until May 1932 [she had been] assembling material gathered in the field.” It is possible that part of this material became Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’ that was posthumously published by Harper Collins in 2018. At the time of her application, Hurston had already published Jonah’s Gourd Vine and had secured a publisher for Mules and Men.
Hurston's Rosenwald application demonstrates a desire to enrich her growing literary oeuvre through further academic study and anthropological work “with emphasis on primitive Negro folk ways.” In her application’s personal essay, she states that such research must be taken up by “individuals feeling the material as well as seeing it objectively. In order to feel it and appreciate the nuances one must be of the group.” Hurston hoped to use her fellowship to then translate the collected material into drama and music.
However, Hurston’s time as a Rosenwald fellow became a scandal, perhaps singular in the history of the Rosenwald Fellowships. After a few months of difficulty in generating a concrete plan of study, the Rosenwald Committee deemed Hurston's study as unworthy of the continuation of her fellowship. Though she was initially awarded $3,000 over a two-year period, she only received $700 of the initial sum for six months of study. Consequently, she was not be able to travel to the West Indies or to obtain her doctorate in Anthropology as she had hoped.
In a letter to Charles S. Johnson on December 20, 1934, Embree wrote: “She seems to all of us to need, very badly, further discipline both intellectually and personally. […] Specifically it seems to us that it would be a serious mistake for her to take a post at college at this time. She would probably cause a great deal of trouble and might simply add to her personal distress and create for herself intellectual confusion.” Johnson replied with wavering confidence in Hurston's comportment.
In a subsequent letter dated January 21, 1935, Edwin Embree informed Hurston that: “Since our discussions I have had letters from you and from Professor Boas. While these indicate that work can be arranged at Columbia of a fairly satisfactory character for the time being, they do not indicate a permanent plan on the bases of which we feel justified in awarding a longtime fellowship.”
Embree later wrote to Dr. Boas that the committee had been “distressed at the over-zealousness in her own behalf of this young woman, and at her lack of tendency to serious quiet scholarship."
Both Boas and Hurston resisted the decision, but to no avail. However, the year after her brief Rosenwald Fellowship, Hurston was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, which would be renewed for a second period.
In her Rosenwald fellowship review (a standard document that was sent to fellows after their fellowship period), Hurston wrote: “Since the grant was first made to me for two years, but somehow in a way I do not understand, ended in six months, I do not feel that it helped appreciably in Anthropology. But I was able to do some very good creative work during the period. […] I would have loved to have studied more, however, in Anthro and achieved my doctorate. But full of gratitude for what I received.”
While a fellow, Hurston completed the play Polk County and began two new books, one of which was accepted by her publishers. It is unclear which books she started or if they were ever published. It has been reported that Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in a 7-week stint while visiting Haiti; but had she already started work on the novel during her Rosenwald fellowship? Ultimately, Hurston reported that the grant gave her more leisure time “to work creatively” even though it did not allow her to obtain the higher degree she had hoped for.
Researchers and casual readers alike will enjoy the colorful tone and singular red signature of Hurston’s letters in this exhibit from the Rosenwald Collection.
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1. "Department History." Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, accessed December 20, 2018, anthropology.columbia.edu/department-history/franz-boas.↩
2. Alexandra Alter, "A Work by Zora Neale Hurston Will Finally Be Published," New York Times, May 1, 2018, nytimes.com/2018/05/01/books/zora-neale-hurston-new-book.html.↩