With the 2023 annual Zora! Festival taking place this weekend and the recently released American Experience episode “Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space,” I wish to highlight connections between the Hungerford School, its contexts in Eatonville, its connection to Black education, and how these intersected with the notable life of the highly individualistic anthropologist, folklorist, and author.
Empowering African Americans through education lay at the heart of the Hungerford School’s mission, as well as its institutional origins. As a “Tuskegee network” school, Hungerford was one of many institutions started throughout the South to provide African American communities with access to educational and vocational opportunities through a diverse and expansive curriculum. [1] Not only did the school aim to emulate Tuskegee educational initiatives, but such initiatives shaped its administration as well. The founders—Russell C. and Mary Calhoun—graduated from Tuskegee and drew upon their experience, skills, and passion to establish the new school. Arriving in what "promise[d] to be a unique community," the Calhouns saw Eatonville as an ideal "place for [them] to begin putting into practice the lessons taught [to them] at Tuskegee." As Robert Calhoun recalled about the start of their tenure at Hungerford, "We felt that we wanted to do something toward helping our people. We decided to cast our lot permanently at Eatonville." [2]
Here the Calhouns provided educational and vocational opportunities relevant to African American lives and experiences. Under the direction and capable hands of the Calhouns, Hungerford became “the educational mainstay of the community” with parents “eager to send their children [there], confident it would prepare them for a world in which economic opportunities were limited.” [3] Such an educational foundation lies at the heart of Zora Neale Hurston’s life and works. Hungerford and the Calhouns are mentioned in Hurston’s autobiographical Dust Tracks on a Road. The daughter of minister John Hurston, Zora attended the school following her family’s move to Eatonville. Records from the 1900 Federal Census show the Calhouns and the Hurstons living on the same street or the same area as one another. (Figure 1) A brief note: I am unsure why Zora's middle initial is "L" here! However, it is undoubtedly her given the names of her parents and siblings. [4]
While Zora’s later education at Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University had a more direct, tangible impact on her work, Hungerford provided an educational base onto which Zora built for the rest of her life. Interviewing Clara Williams, an acquaintance of Hurston’s, Dr. Anna Lillios asked what jobs were available to Eatonville women during the 1930s and 40s. Williams responded, “…cleaning houses. Very few of them that I know of went off to school. At Hungerford they taught them how to keep house, wash, and take care of children—along with the lessons. Very few of them were fortunate enough to read and go to college.” [5] In addition to her education, it was talent, perseverance, and dedication that aided Zora in breaking this mold for herself. Leveraging her talent and skills, she secured benefactors and patrons to fund her education, research trips, and writing periods. This funding was eventually supplemented by income she generated from book sales, although largely posthumous recognition meant she could not rely on such revenue streams consistently.
Receiving funding was often the only way African Americans could secure the resources necessary to have a career beyond societal expectations, especially in the South. Similarly, while Hungerford and its legacy suffused throughout the community, it—as a private boarding school—was not accessible to everyone. Thus, students were either from the emerging Black middle/upper class or funded through combinations of tuition donation and scholarships. This too was a common thread throughout Hurston’s life. Many scholars of Hurston’s life point to her formal academic training presenting a barrier to the documentation of folklore and African American culture in her earlier anthropologically focused work. In her own time, she faced criticism over her way of portraying Black life in the South. To many in Eatonville, her formal education and time away from the community regulated her to an “outsider” status, despite spending most of her childhood there.
However, as documented by Dr. Lillios, opinions were mixed. While many did take umbrage with their adaptation in Hurston’s works, others remembered her fondly. When asked about her reputation in Eatonville following the publication of works inspired by the town, resident Jimmie Lee Harrell replied, “[Many Eatonville residents] didn’t have much schooling. But Zora was one, from what I can understand, who had been to school long enough to know what she was saying and doing. I imagine there was some jealousy. Zora was well educated. The people who were living here at the time weren’t making too much of their lives. I think they were just jealous.” [6]
Today, Zora Neale Hurston’s works and contributions to her field are celebrated—celebrations also tied to the Hungerford School’s land, its present, and its future. In previous years, the land of the original Hungerford School was made available by Orange County Public Schools for use as a venue for the annual Zora! festival. On a January 20, 2023 episode of Florida Frontiers, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community N. Y. Nathiri stated that the land was no longer available after thirty-two years of use to host the festival—a result of OCPS’ commitment to selling the land. [7] Despite its use for over thirty-two years to celebrate one of Eatonville’s most famous residents during an event which brings both community members and visitors together to celebrate Eatonville and its rich cultural heritage, the actions of OCPS speak to prioritizing monetary gain over respecting and celebrating the community.
Sources
[1] "Tuskegee Grads Gain Leadership in Many Fields," The Montgomery Advertiser, December 9, 1932. Ancestry. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70179510/tuskegee-grads-gain-leadership-in-many/
[2] Russell C. Calhoun, "A Negro Community Builder," in Tuskegee and Its People: Their Ideals and Achievements, edited by Booker T. Washington (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), 334. URL.
[3] Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2005), 79.
[4] Hurston family (lines 75-84) and the Calhouns (lines 97-98), 1900 US Federal Census, Eatonville, FL, Ancestry.
[5] Anna Lillios, “Excursions into Zora Neale Hurston’s Eatonville,” in Zora in Florida, eds. Steve Glassman and Kathryn Lee Seidel (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida), 13-28.
[6] Lillios, 25.
[7] “Program #496,” Florida Frontiers (podcast episode), Florida Historical Quarterly, January 20, 2023.
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