In 1891 in a town called Notasulga, Alabama, Zora Hurston was born among eight children. The following year he moved to Eatonville, Florida, which was considered an all-black community. Growing up in this type of community, Hurston was only accustomed to her own ethnic group and had no experience of life outside of her community. His father was a strict Baptist preacher who took no great responsibility as a father figure. The only person who managed to keep the family together was Hurston's mother, Lucy. Lucy was Hurston's motivation, "the driving force and great support" of her mother, who gave her self-confidence. Her mother later died when Hurston was only eleven, but she was able to live out her years with close relatives and was soon old enough to care for herself. Hurston didn't finish high school, but still managed to get into a great school. college. He attended Harvard University, which at the time was considered “the nation's premier African-American university” (528). Among the pedagogical leaders here, Alain Locke contributed to Hurston's popularity. He was known for his anthology The New Negro in 1925.(528) He later decided to move from Harlem to pursue his dream as a literary writer after the publication of his short story, Drenched in Light, in an African-American magazine. Robert Hemenway's name wrote about Hurston, which made her gain even more popularity and became famous. Robert Hemenway writes, "Zora Hurston was a remarkably witty woman, and she immediately acquired a reputation in New York for her good humor and insightful tales of Eatonville life" (528). Hurston was imagined as “generous, outspoken, and an interesting conversationalist.”(528) Hurston began her treatment…middle of paper…was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. The painting illustrated the company of blacks. The man looking back in the image can be portrayed in Hughes' poem, Visitors to the Black Belt. In the poem Hughes says “You can say Jazz on the south side: to me it's hell on the south side. Who are you, stranger? Ask me who I am” (876). From these words I feel that the man in the photo is experiencing that "blacks" in that era were too focused on the causal setting of their own development and were not focused on the outside world. Racism still existed and “Who” are you, outsider? Ask me who I am,” was a way of saying that even if he lived prosperously, his colleagues wouldn't even know he existed if he got tired of going out of his element. Work CitedBaym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume D: W. W. Norton. New York. 2012. Print