Did You Know? Writer, Anthropologist and ‘Queen of the Harlem Renaissance’ Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was Blackballed by Her Own People Because She was a Republican?
*N.B.: Selected Readings & Notes—Christopher J. Scalia, Zora Neale Hurston and the Fate of Black Conservatives(May 15, 2025); Adriana Fraser, The Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston: ‘A Genius of the South’, thedig.howard.edu (Jan. 8, 2026); Ellis Washington, Symposium— The When and the Why of Black Women’s Irresistible Impulse to Disrespect and Hate the Black Man?” (02/11/2024); Ellis Washington, I Remember Dr. Morris Dunbar Professor of Biology on MLK Day (01/26/2023); Ellis Washington, 8 Open Letters—Reply to President David Meyer on the Apotheosis of President Donald J. Trump (Dec. 23, 2023); Ellis Washington, Open Letter to Author and Genealogist Millie L. McGhee and to Yale Historians Beverly Gage & David Blight on the Question—Was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) a Black Man Passing as White and Why it still Matters? (April 24, 2026); TikTok, Amen2Trump, The Mental Illness of Democrats, (posted on YouTube by @JeffSquare [05/2026]); “The Obsolete Man” (Season 2, Episode 29 of The Twilight Zone) is a dystopian 1961 episode written by Rod Serling, featuring Burgess Meredith as Romney Werdsworth, a librarian deemed “obsolete” by a totalitarian state. ‘Werdsworth triumphs over his executioner by proving that individual human dignity, faith, and thought cannot be erased by state-mandated logic [i.e., Democide = Government murder of its citizens]’.
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About the Author—Professor Ellis Washington, J.D.—I went to Harvard Law School for 1 year (1988-89) with future POTUS Barack Hussein Obama, (b. 08/04/1961 – d. 09/29/2019), who was a secret descendant of the Rothschild Banking Cartel Family and a blood grandson of the German NAZI dictator, Adolf HITLER! – who was also a Rothschild – but I took the opposite path in Life—New World Order, Communism, Treason, Pedophilia and Satanic Ritual Abuse vs. Christianity, Conservatism, Protecting the Children & America First Nationalism. I repeatedly refused to take the “Satan OATH” which is why I’ve been blacklisted since 1989 – for over 37 years—for my entire legal and academic career, yet I Fight on! Why? To avenge Harvard University’s original 1692 motto—Veritas pro Christo et Ecclesia {= Truth for Christ and the Church}.
Cui bono?– Who benefits? Why are all national currencies of the world promiscuously printed at will by the Rothschild Central Bankers? Is it to fund perpetual False Flag Wars like—America- Israel vs. Iran, America vs. New World Order, America vs. Venezuela, Israel vs. Gaza, Syria, Iran, Yemen & Lebanon, Russia vs. Ukraine, Taiwan vs. China, Rwanda vs. The Congo, Cambodia vs. Thailand, Armenia vs. Azerbaijan, Civil war in France, in Yemen, in Laos, in Indonesia, and existential battles all over the world, while keeping the entire world enslaved inside an existential – Birth-School-Labor-Taxes-Debts-Retirement-Death cycle of the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia Matrix (1871-2021[26])? Further answers can be learned by reading, studying and sharing the Truth of my Critical Thinking blog that on 1 March 2026) surpassed 27 million views! See, EllisWashingtonReport.com, Facebook, Twitter/X—#JesusIsGod (Isaiah 9:6) #DCActof1871 |
Books by Professor Ellis Washington, J.D.
“I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.”
“Those that don’t got it, can’t show it. Those that got it, can’t hide it.
“If you’re silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
– Zora Neale Hurston
[Morpheus to Neo:] “Everything they told you was a [Big] Lie.”
– The Matrix Movie, Part I (1999)—Construct Scene
“There are always more slaves than masters.”
– Charlie Kirk (after Friedrich Nietzsche)
Prologue—Why is Harlem Renaissance Writer Zora Neale Hurston Still Important Today?
Zora Neale Hurston was a seminal writer, anthropologist, and folklorist. She was vital for championing authentic Black culture in the American South and Caribbean. Rather than focusing on racial struggle, her work celebrated the resilience, rich vernacular, and humanity of everyday African Americans. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Hurston’s importance and legacy can be broken down into a few core areas:
· Pioneering Anthropological Work: She studied under the famous anthropologist Franz Boas at Barnard College, becoming the first Black woman to graduate from the institution. Her fieldwork in the U.S. South, Jamaica, and Haiti helped document and preserve foundational Black folklore, hoodoo, and religious traditions that had previously been ignored by academia. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
· Literary Masterpieces: She was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is considered a classic of 20th-century literature. It was revolutionary for centering on the inner life and emotional agency of a Black southern woman. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
· Champion of Individualism: She broke racial barriers but also stood out for her fierce individualism. During an era when many Black intellectuals were aligned with rising collectivist movements, Hurston championed the idea that people should be judged entirely on the content of their individual character. [1,2]
· Cultural Resurgence: Although she died in poverty and obscurity in 1960, her work was famously resurrected in 1975 by author Alice Walker, whose Ms. magazine article prompted the rediscovery of Hurston’s genius. [1, 2, 3]
To explore her biographies, writings, and cultural contributions further, you can read the National Women’s History Museum Biography or delve into Howard University’s piece on The Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston. [1]
According to an important article by Adriana Fraser, Howard University Associate Editor in the Office of University Communications writing on the legacy of Howard Alumni, Zora Neale Hurston who was a 1920 graduate of Howard University, but attended there from 1919-24—
This year marks the 135th birthday of writer, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (A.A. ’20), born Jan. 7, 1891. The prolific writer cared deeply about Black people and Black culture and was oftentimes referred to as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance” for her impact and contributions during the time period.
According to the Zora Neale Hurston Trust, Hurston was a student at Howard University from 1919 to 1924, where she majored in English and received her associates degree in 1920. While at Howard, she joined a literary club sponsored by Professors Alain Locke (the intellectual founder and “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance”) and Montgomery Gregory and would go on to publish her first story “John Redding Goes to Sea,” along with the poem “O Night,” in the university’s literary journal Stylus. She’d later attend Barnard College to study anthropology and was the first Black person to graduate from the university in 1928. Hurston’s anthropological and ethnographic work included examining Black folklore and documenting cultural and religious traditions of places such as the U.S. South, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Honduras. Her literary oeuvre included authoring several books — such as her most known work, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937) — and penning more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays.
What I find most perplexing and paradoxical about this great, transcendent Black literary figure is how well her writing is back during the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” which my research and the research of other writers such as my intellectual mentor and the forgotten genius of Black Aesthetics and History I studied under for 30 years (1985-2015)—Professor Arthur R. LaBrew (1930-2015). LaBrew knew everybody that was anybody in the Harlem Renaissance (or personally knew one person [or generation] removed from them), yet understood as I and other iconoclast writers did including Zora Neale Hurston that this so-called outpouring of Black Art, Writing, Literature and Culture in Harlem during the 1920s-30s was like many historical or literary movements not totally reality, but a False Flag Social Construct, e.g., a Grand Societal Construct.
More specifically the Harlem Renaissance (and later the so-called “Civil Rights Movement”) was a false creation by hidden Communist or Cultural Marxist forces that hid behind the shadows, propped up selected or accepted Black Artists and Writers, Painters and Entertainers, Musicians and Intellectuals. Why? To use these chosen “Black Artists” to lead the majority of Black America into the abyss of a Leftist Construct ubiquitously referred to as “Cultural Marxism” that had been formulating in one form or another since the American Revolution (1775-83) and the French Revolution (1789-99)namely—Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Progressivism, Liberalism, LGBT-Q+ and to slavishly, without regards to history or necessity, give their votes to the Democrat Socialist Party.
Thus the so-called Harlem Renaissance was a False Flag Socialist Construct concocted behind the scenes by Machiavellian Democrat Party Leftists and New World Order Globalists to use Bohemian art forms and laissez faire aesthetics to seize control of the voting power of the Black masses to move from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party. A Black America conga-line to Hell. . . Nothing more!
(*N.B.: See generally, Ellis Washington, Professor Arthur LaBrew and the Myth of the American Dream,RenewAmerica.com (Feb. 17, 2015).
In fact according to my old History teacher and the iconic Musicologist, Professor Arthur LaBrew, the Harlem Renaissance was less about improving or acknowledging the highest levels of Black poetry, prose, art, history, intellectualism, entertainment, dance, painting, etc. and more about forcefully reimagining, changing or augmenting the culture’s Republican roots and to remake Black Culture into a generalized, ghettoized Bohemian lifestyle that experimented with extra-marital sex, drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroine, and participation in afterhours establishments like bars, clubs, dance halls, full of cigarette, cigars and strong alcohol drinks –the complete opposite of the more acceptable to the largely Christian morality of the late nineteenth century big cities like – New York, Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angelos. That’s why I call the Harlem Renaissance the Harlem Gay Renaissance because all of its most important members were covertly or overtly homosexual. This was not by accident by a False Flag Social Constructivism designed to deconstruct Christian America from the inside out. (See, AI Overview below)—
The Harlem Renaissance, flourishing in the 1920s and 30s, was profoundly shaped by the LGBTQ+ community. While many had to conceal their private lives, these queer and gender-nonconforming artists, intellectuals, and performers formed the backbone of the movement’s radical creativity. [1, 2, 3]
Key LGBTQ+ Figures
· Gladys Bentley: A pioneering, gender-nonconforming blues singer and pianist who headlined iconic speakeasies like the Ubangi Club. Bentley famously wore a signature top hat and tuxedo, singing raunchy parodies while openly flirting with women in the audience. [1]
· Alain Locke: Known as the “Dean” of the Harlem Renaissance, this philosopher and writer championed Black artists and was a trailblazing gay intellectual of the era. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
· Richard Bruce Nugent: One of the few openly gay Black writers of his time. His short story Smoke, Lilies and Jadeis considered a seminal queer text for its unapologetic depiction of bisexuality and same-sex relationships. [1]
· Langston Hughes: The celebrated poet and leading literary figure was widely understood within Harlem’s underground circles to be gay or queer, and his legacy remains a cornerstone of the Black queer canon. [1, 2]
· Billy Strayhorn: Songwriter/Arranger who ghost wrote many jazz standards under Duke Ellington’s name like—Take the A-Train, Satin Doll, Lotus Blossom, Chelsea Bridge, Day Dream, Something to Live For, and many other Jazz Standards and popular dance composition. Why? Not as AI Overview and conventional history alleges due to existing copyright arrangements between the two men, but according to conversations through the years with my historian teacher and musicologist, Professor Arthur R. LaBrew (1930-2015) it was to hide his name and minimize his celebrity to keep his homosexuality from becoming public and damaging his career.
· Paul Robeson: Robeson was not exclusively gay, but historians and biographers have documented that he was bisexual. [1, 2] While he was married to his wife, Eslanda “Essie” Goode, for over 40 years, they maintained an open marriage, and he had multiple affairs with both women and men. Notably, this includes an affair with the gay American composer Marc Blitzstein. [1, 2, 3, 4]
· Countee Cullen: An award-winning poet who navigated his sexuality while publicly marrying W.E.B. Du Bois’s daughter—one of Harlem’s most prominent social events. [1]
· Bessie Smith: Bessie Smith was bisexual rather than strictly gay. Known as the “Empress of the Blues,” she was an unapologetic icon of the 1920s and 1930s who had numerous, well-documented romantic relationships and affairs with both men and women. [1, 2, 3, 4]
· Ethel Waters: A legendary blues and jazz icon who recorded hits like “Stormy Weather” and integrated Broadway. She had highly publicized relationships with women in the 1920s.
Notable Black Gay Dancers, Choreographers, Stage Entertainers during the Harlem Renaissance include—
· Mabel Hampton: A celebrated chorus line dancer in all-Black productions throughout the 1920s. She later became a pivotal LGBTQ+ activist and archivist, preserving much of the history of Black lesbian life during the era. [1, 2]
· Ethel Waters: One of the most famous jazz and blues singers and dancers of the 1920s. She was bisexual and famously lived with and dated her backup dancer, Ethel Williams, in Harlem—a relationship documented by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. [1, 2]
· Jimmie Daniels: An openly gay singer, dancer, and charismatic nightclub host. He frequently performed at popular speakeasies and established himself as a prominent fixture in Harlem’s queer nightlife. [1, 2]
· Richard Bruce Nugent: An openly gay dancer, writer, and artist. He was deeply immersed in the artistic circle of the movement and is considered one of the few truly “out” men of the era. [1, 2]
· Gladys Bentley: A powerhouse blues singer and pianist who often wore a tuxedo and top hat. Though known more for her booming vocal performances, she headlined Gladys’s Clam House and later the Ubangi Club with a backup chorus of drag queens. [1, 2, 3]
· Josephine Baker: The iconic international superstar and dancer identified as bisexual. She built a significant portion of her early career performing on the stages of Harlem before finding massive success in Paris.
Zora Neale Hurston founded the Nation’s oldest Black Collegiate Newspaper
Adriana Fraser, The Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston: ‘A Genius of the South’, “During her time as a Howard student, Hurston, alongside Louis Eugene King (B.S. ’24), founded The Hilltop, the university’s student newspaper and the oldest Black collegiate paper in the nation. The pair published the first issue of The Hilltop Jan. 22, 1924, and more than a century later, the paper continues to be one of the country’s premiere collegiate news sources.”
The inaugural editorial staff of The Hilltop in 1924. (Photo courtesy of the
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center)
Thus Huston (I believe is pictured 2nd row, 1st person to the left) was at ground zero in young Black collegiate writing at the most influential Historic Black College University [HBCU] at the very start of the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” which officially began at the genesis of the so-called “Roaring Twenties” in the year 1920, nevertheless despite this veritable, mythical placement in Black literary history and her prolific output and literary and scientific gifts yet she is all but forgotten today except for a college course here and there at an HBCU on Black Women Writers.
This Grand Leftist Conspiracy is not done by chance as I have intimated before but is designed by shadowy power in high places who push democidal agendas surreptitiously. Why? Do to dilute the Truth, to deconstruct and to destroy Christianity, Culture and Society from within (#CulturalMarxism) and to have the most prolific Black woman writer in American history be also known as an active Republican and devoted critic of the Democrat Socialist Party, FDR’s New Deal, even criticizing the hypocrisy and racial segregation of White Feminism in favor of later what writer Alice Walker called Womanism.
What are Zora Neale Hurston’s Most Important Works
Zora Neale Hurston’s essential reading list blends brilliant Southern fiction with foundational African American folklore and memoir. Her most iconic works provide a powerful, poetic look at Black culture and independence in the 20th-century American South. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Discover her greatest works below:
1. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
· The Vibe: Southern romance, self-discovery, and literary triumph.
· Why read it: Hurston’s masterpiece follows Janie Crawford through three marriages and a journey of self-actualization. It is widely celebrated as one of the most defining and influential novels in African American literature. [1, 2, 3]
2. Mules and Men (1935)
· The Vibe: Folklore, anthropology, and storytelling.
· Why read it: A groundbreaking collection of African American folklore and hoodoo practices collected directly from the South. It is an indispensable, entertaining look into Black oral traditions. [1, 2, 3, 4]
3. Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)
· The Vibe: Memoir and autobiography.
· Why read it: Hurston’s vibrant, sometimes mythologized autobiography tracing her life from Eatonville, Florida—one of the country’s first incorporated all-Black municipalities—to her rise as a leading Harlem Renaissance intellectual. [1, 2, 3, 4]
4. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (2018)
· The Vibe: History and oral history.
· Why read it: Published posthumously, this vital historical work details Hurston’s 1927 interviews with Cudjo Lewis (Oluale Kossola), the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
5. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020)
· The Vibe: Short stories.
· Why read it: A collection of 21 short stories written during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, showcasing her sharp humor and deep understanding of gender, race, and class.
If you are wondering where to begin, most literary critics and readers recommend starting with Their Eyes Were Watching God. For a comprehensive look at her entire bibliography and curated starting points, you can explore the Goodreads Best of Zora Neale Hurston List or read The Guardian’s Where to Start Guide.
In critically examining Zora Neale Hurston’s greatest or more important writings one is confronted with the paradoxical understanding that how could a writer of her rank and brilliance, one of the few Black writers at that time that had graduate training in scientific fields of study and integrated that high level of scientific rigor and training into the worldview of her writings not be more popular then and now? In short, I can only compare the paradox to my long-time History and Musicology teacher Professor Arthur LaBrew (who wrote about 40 books including his magnum opus—An International Encyclopedic Dictionary of Black Classical Music— (1250 B.C.- 1950s) (2013) and to my own oeuvre of 11 books (see links to all my books at the beginning of this essay) and about 3,000+ essays amounting to about 50 unpublished book manuscripts. I achieved all this alone—Without the backing of a university or literary organization it is nearly impossible to make it or support one’s self as a writer particularly post-21 st century when the rise of social media has made people (especially young people like Millennials, Generation X and Generation Z) to be less likely to read books, particularly books on a high academic and intellectual breath.
Take Hurston’s magnum opus, Their Eyes Are Watching God (1937) – Hurston’s masterpiece follows Janie Crawford through three marriages and a journey of self-actualization. It is widely celebrated as one of the most defining and influential novels in African American literature. Like Oscar Wilde’s classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is largely biographical in an idealized sense of the word, however, because Hurston is driven by iconoclasm and truth she did not fall into the Cultural Marxist abyss of pushing a lowkey Communist or Socialist agenda on Black American society in the 1920s and 30s. She was above petty politics and allowed the truth of her Art to order her steps and to set her goals. Thus, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” is a foundational text in 20th-century literature. It is celebrated for centering an independent Black woman’s voice and using rich, authentic African American vernacular. [1, 2]
*N.B.: Mural of Famous Literary Figures including a painting of Zora Neal Hurston (the only Black person delineated) at a Starbucks Coffee Shop at Barnes & Noble Bookstores nationwide.
*
Was Zora Neal Hurston a Republican?
Yes, Zora Neale Hurston was a Republican. Though she is most famous as an author and anthropologist of the Harlem Renaissance, her political views were staunchly conservative and libertarian, often putting her at odds with many of her left-leaning contemporaries. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Her specific political positions included:
· Anti-Communism & The Old Right: She vehemently opposed communism and the Soviet Union, and generally supported the non-interventionist and limited-government policies of the Old Right. [1, 2]
· Opposition to the New Deal: She was a vocal critic of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, disliking the expansion of federal power and state welfare programs. [1, 2]
· Individualism over Identity Politics: She despised the idea of treating Black Americans as a single voting bloc or viewing them as helpless victims, preferring aggressive self-reliance and individualism. [1,2]
· Opposition to Brown v. Board of Education: In a highly controversial 1955 letter to the Orlando Sentinel, she opposed the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling. She argued that forced integration assumed all-Black schools were inherently inferior and worried that integration would strip Black communities of their autonomy and cause Black culture to fade. [1, 2]
While modern scholars sometimes debate how to label her legacy, her voting record and written essays place her firmly within the Republican party of her era. You can explore more about her political philosophy and the nuances of her beliefs through the American Enterprise Institute – AEI or by reading the perspective detailed in NPR.
My original title for this essay was–Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)—The Iconoclast Black Harlem Renaissance Writer and Anthropologist who was also a Republican and Why She is Still Important Today? I changed it to what it is now because I wanted to expose what few writers (especially Black writers) are too cowardly and compromised to say openly about political litmus tests concocted by White Socialists to impose on acceptable Black “elites”. To what end? To order, create and control what “Art” would be acceptable in middle-class and upper middle-class circles of Black America circa 1920s and 1930s. In other words, the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” was like Black Conservative writer and satirist George Schuyler postulated nearly 100 years ago–The Harlem “Gay” Renaissance which was a false flag construct awakening of Black Arts and Writing, Poetry, Music and Culture in 1920, in Harlem, New York. The Harlem Renaissance was Hitlerian Big Lie concocted to foment and to entrench and enslave Cultural Marxism in American Black Culture and Black Society.
Ellis Washington Report utilizes a “Cultural Marxism” framework to argue that Max Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School developed “Critical Theory” to systematically dismantle Western cultural institutions from the inside particularly be denigrating, deconstructing, and ultimately destroying America’s Christian Culture and Society from within. The platform posits this as an intentional infiltration of universities and media aimed at replacing traditional values with intersectional identity politics. Read more of the essays directly on elliswashingtonreport.com. This statement sets on bold relief what was really going on with the Harlem Renaissance and why it was literally a False Flag literary movement or a Black Literary Construct used to shift the voting population of Black America in the 1920 away from the Republican Party to the Democrat Socialist Party.
Virtually all of the so-called Writers, Artists, Poets and Musicians of the Harlem Renaissance uncritically sold their Souls and embraced the Socialist and Communist undertones and absorbed them into their “Art” without hesitation or critical examination. Why? For several reason—
1) The money their received from behind the scenes from people like the Harmon Foundation, Rosenwald Found, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, and people like Charlotte Osgood Mason and Carl Van Vechten, and other supporters of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance paid the bills and kept the lights on. See, AI Overview on the Major Patrons of the Harlem Renaissance—
The Harlem Renaissance relied heavily on wealthy white benefactors and institutional fellowships to survive. Key patrons included individual financiers, philanthropic foundations, and influential editors. [1, 2, 3]
Key Individual Patrons
· Charlotte Osgood Mason: Often referred to as “Godmother,” she was an eccentric and controlling philanthropist who extensively funded key figures like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. [1, 2,3]
· Carl Van Vechten: A white author and photographer, he used his social influence to connect Black writers with white publishers and introduced the culture of Harlem to a broader white audience. [1, 2]
Key Foundations
· The Harmon Foundation: Provided vital fellowship grants and hosted prominent exhibitions for visual artists like Aaron Douglas and Palmer Hayden. [1, 2, 3]
· The Rosenwald Fund: Awarded financial fellowships to writers, artists, and scholars, enabling them to travel, study, and dedicate time to their craft. [1, 2, 3]
Institutional & Media Patrons
· The NAACP & National Urban League: Through their official publications, The Crisis (edited by W.E.B. Du Bois) and Opportunity (edited by Charles S. Johnson), these organizations paid for and published early writings from many Renaissance figures. [1, 2, 3, 4]
2) Virtually all of these artist, writers, poets and musicians were either from New York or lived there so they were fellow travelers writing, singing, composing inside the same Marxist-Socialist-Progressive echo chamber of the most Leftist city in America… New York City where virtually all other voices (e.g., Christian, Evangelical, Conservative, Libertarian, etc.) were discriminated against and removed, ignored and blackballed;
3) The fact that Zora Neale Hurston had the courage of her convictions to understand American political history enough to realize that it was the Republican Party that was formed under the explicit goal of eradicating Black Slavery, thus she would not betray these noble historical goals by White America to Black America to receive present day notoriety or celebrity. Hurston was a Woman, an Artist of Singular Principle!
Her vehement opposition to Communism particularly under Soviet Russia (Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, rise of Lenin (1917-24), Rise of Stalin (1924-53) and the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (Mao Zedong [1935-1976]) and other Communist Revolutions throughout Europe and South America made Huston personally and acutely aware of the dangers of Communism and Socialism and their Leftist derivates here in America—Liberalism, Progressivism, and later LGBT-Q+. Also, Huston was a vocal critical of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Socialist New Deal policies (1933-45) as being harmful to Blacks to getting them used to government handouts over personal hard work and efforts.
In other words, Hurston placed her faith in individualism over Identity Politics which she boldly stated in her opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 stating In a highly controversial 1955 letter to the Orlando Sentinel, she opposed the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling. She argued that forced integration assumed all-Black schools were inherently inferior and worried that integration would strip Black communities of their autonomy and cause Black culture to fade. 72 years later in 2026 with the fall of Racial Gerrymandering, DEI and the low-test scores of Blacks children in Democrat-run big cities that she was 100% correct.
Why did Langston Hughes Betray Zora Neale Hurston in 1930 as She was approaching the height of her Career?
Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston did not simply betray each other; rather, their friendship collapsed in 1930 amid a bitter, ego-driven dispute over the authorship and copyright of their collaborative folk play, Mule Bone. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The breakdown of their relationship stemmed from a complex web of mutual misunderstandings and competing ambitions: [1, 2, 3]
· The Core Dispute: The two wrote a play based on Hurston’s original folklore and unpublished story. After a falling-out during the writing process, Hurston secretly filed for sole copyright of the play. In retaliation—and without Hurston’s knowledge—Hughes filed for a joint copyright under a new script name (The Mule-Bone). Both claimed to be the principal author, leading to an epic, unresolved custody battle over the work. [1, 2, 3]
· The “Godmother” Influence: Their mutual patron, a wealthy white woman named Charlotte Osgood Mason, heavily fueled their rivalry. She controlled their finances, sowed competition between them, and disapproved of their collaboration. [1, 2]
· The Aftermath: The fight permanently severed their bond, and both largely omitted the joyous parts of their friendship from their respective autobiographies. [1, 2]
For a deeper dive into their intense dynamic, the book Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Yuval Taylor offers a thorough look at their rift. You can also read a breakdown of the doomed partnership on Electric Literature or an analysis of their conflicting literary legacies on WashU. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
I truly believe and understand that the answers to this section have roots in the previous analysis. Why? Langston Hughes, being the “Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance” was its most celebrated and vocal figure, but also a man of vainglory, bitterness and jealously who was driven by his Communist, Socialist politics. He was offended that Hurston didn’t acquiesce to the Democrat Socialist Party despite their evil history Slavery, Jim Crow, founding the KKK, Black Genocide of successful Black Cities and Towns and promoting political Plantation-ism in their efforts to as Karl Marx demanded . . .“The first battlefield is to rewrite history”.
I believe politics and a servile servitude lay at the heart of the fight between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston; at least on a surface level. Beneath the politics I believe lay a profound sense on Hughes’s part that Zora had eclisped not only him but the entire construct, false flag Harlem Renaissance movement and thus neither she nor her true Art could be allowed to stand; could be allowed to exist next to their derivative second-class Black art forms.
Why did Zora Neale Hurston Die Poor and Forgotten for Decades?
Zora Neale Hurston died penniless in 1960 primarily because the literary establishment stopped buying her work. During her final decades, she faced changing political and cultural tastes, outlived her patrons, and was largely abandoned by the publishing world, forcing her to work as a maid and librarian to survive. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Several intersecting factors contributed to her poverty at the end of her life:
· Shifting Cultural Tastes: By the 1950s, the Black arts movement and civil rights era pushed toward highly politicized literature. Hurston’s focus on Black Southern dialect, folklore, and celebration of rural autonomy was dismissed by younger, more politically driven Black intellectuals as too traditional.
· Lack of Mainstream Commercial Success: Although she published more books than any other Black woman in America during her lifetime, her focus on Black female agency and unapologetic cultural anthropology did not translate to widespread mainstream sales.
· Strained Professional Relationships: Hurston often refused to make her work palatable to white or male sensibilities. After the loss of wealthy benefactors like Charlotte Osgood Mason, she struggled to secure consistent publishing contracts.
· Illness and Medical Bills: In 1959, Hurston suffered a debilitating stroke. Without the funds to care for herself, she was forced to move into the St. Lucie County Welfare Home in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she died of heart disease. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Because her books had fallen completely out of print and her name faded from the public eye, she was buried in a segregated, unmarked grave. Her literary legacy and brilliant catalog of works were not widely recognized until years later, famously championed by author Alice Walker. [1, 2, 3]
For a more comprehensive look at her life and posthumous literary resurgence, you can read the Women & the American Story Biography or the National Women’s History Museum profile.
Finally, in my political, historical and literary review of Black Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston I wanted to answer some questions about how a talented, even genius writer of her caliber died in poverty. And how could her works become all but forgotten for decades? This doesn’t make sense to me; however, I see this leitmotif, this Idee Fixe appearing throughout history—I saw it with my intellectual mentor and my Professor of History and Musicology, Professor Arthur R. LaBrew (1930-2015) who personally knew virtually all the Harlem Renaissance writers, artists, poets and musicians.
I saw society ignore and marginalize myself for exposing academic frauds like Chief Judge Richard A. Posner, the person who is most cited by SCOTUS and cited more than any other person by law reviews and law journals. Thus, this begs the question—If Ellis Washington exposed the very legal scholar to be a fraud that SCOTUS and all the law journals consider an intellectual giant, then who is correct about Judge Posner—The Mainstream Cultural Marxist Academy or Ellis Washington?
So, to answer the larger question queried above about why did Hurston die in poverty, ignored and ultimate forgotten? AI Overview cites 4 reasons:
1) Shifting Cultural Tastes: “By the 1950s, the Black arts movement and civil rights era pushed toward highly politicized literature. Hurston’s focus on Black Southern dialect, folklore, and celebration of rural autonomy was dismissed by younger, more politically driven Black intellectuals as too traditional.”
I doubt the analysis cited above because the cultural and literary tastes of Black America (like other races) is broad enough to embrace both urban writings and writings like Hurston that largely took place in a rural setting. In other words, Black people can walk and chew gum at the same time. I believe the real answer on why Hurston died in poverty was that she was secretly blackballed by the Black Mainstream Intelligencia, e.g., what W.E.B. DuBois called “The Talented Tenth”.
Zora Neale Hurston and “The Black [H.L.] Mencken”—George Schuyler (1895-1977)
What the Democrat Socialist Party Media didn’t tell you about this self-appointed, contrived group of Black intellectuals was that to belong to this group you had to belong to the Democrat Party, a Socialist or even better a Communist or your career would be destroyed. If you doubt my analysis, just look at the Black intellectuals, writers, artists, musicians who were celebrated and wealthy and the Blacks who held on to principle, history and truth (Zora Neale Hurston,
“The Black [H.L.] Mencken”—George Schuyler (1895-1977)(American writer, journalist, social commentator). Think of Frederick Douglass meets Booker T. Washington and you have George Schuyler whose acerbic wit and biting criticism of Black Society and Culture was fearless and merciless. Schuyler took no prisoners when exposing the Big Lies and hypocrisy of so-called Black High Culture. For example he had little regard to Alain Locke, the so-called “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance, calling him the “Dean of the Niggerati”.
Schuyler also exposed the duplicity of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Civil Rights Activist), that most people were unaware of regarding the fact that MLK and his father were originally Republicans (like most Blacks—intellectuals, middle class and working class before 1965), but in order to get his son out of an Alabama jail made a secret deal to change his party affiliation and urge Blacks to vote for the Democrat Party. (*N.B.: See, Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail(April 1963). Also, I was delighted to learn that Hurston and Schuyler knew of one another’s writings and admired each other as outcast Republican Artists—
Zora Neale Hurston was a towering literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance who broke norms by centering Black rural life and women’s experiences. In contrast, the prominent satirist and journalist George S. Schuyler wrote critical essays challenging the concept of a distinct “Negro art,” instead viewing Black American culture as fundamentally American. [1, 2,3, 4]
Zora Neale Hurston’s Connection to the Movement
· Focus on Folklore: Unlike many of her contemporaries who focused on urban, middle-class uplift, Hurston embraced the rich cultural heritage and dialect of the rural American South. [1, 2]
· Major Works: Her groundbreaking 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, remains one of the movement’s most celebrated texts. [1, 2, 3, 4]
· Controversy: Hurston’s refusal to write purely political or protest-based literature caused friction with other leading male figures of the Renaissance, such as Richard Wright. [1, 2, 3]
George S. Schuyler’s Perspective on Black Art
· “The Negro-Art Hokum” (1926): Schuyler published this famous essay arguing that Black American artists were entirely products of their American environment and fundamentally no different from white artists. [1, 2, 3] See, AI Overview Synopsis of this landmark essay here.
· Satire: As a journalist, he preferred biting satire that dissected the absurdity of racial categorizations rather than romanticizing them. [1, 2, 3, 4]
· Mutual Respect: Interestingly, despite their differing philosophies, Schuyler held a sincere appreciation for Hurston’s work, praising her ability to write about African Americans simply as Americans.
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2) Lack of Mainstream Commercial Success: “Although she published more books than any other Black woman in America during her lifetime, her focus on Black female agency and unapologetic cultural anthropology did not translate to widespread mainstream sales.”
The reason doesn’t make sense to me because in 2026 that’s all we hear in the media = Black female agency = Girl Power = Black Girl Magic, etc. Thus, if Hurston was a prophetic writer in this sense transversing decades of socio-cultural-political history and to arrive on the right side of history, but a shining example of courage, freedom, honour and Truth, why wouldn’t she have commercial success unless there were those holding power behind the scenes that didn’t want a Black Republican woman to be a role model for young black students (and students of all races) growing up in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s until she died in 1960.
3) Strained Professional Relationships: Hurston often refused to make her work palatable to white or male sensibilities. After the loss of wealthy benefactors like Charlotte Osgood Mason, she struggled to secure consistent publishing contracts.
For what can only be called evil reason Huston’s primary benefactor, Charlotte Osgood Mason derived a perverse pleasure in pitting her against poet Langston Hughes over the royalties of a book they co-authored. This contention led to Hurston being blackballed and her career crippled for decades until she died in poverty.
The lesson here is that people of all races and both genders can be very cruel to one another and that cruelty can have devastating effects upon innocent people who put their trust and confidence if you.
4) Illness and Medical Bills: In 1959, Hurston suffered a debilitating stroke. Without the funds to care for herself, she was forced to move into the St. Lucie County Welfare Home in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she died of heart disease. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
This reason out of the 4 cited in this section is the only plausible explanation I can reasonably rely on why Hurston died in poverty, but it leaves me empty because it doesn’t supply the reasons WHY Hurston was forced to live such a miserable existence as a writer, as an academic anthropologist and as an intellectual. As if being the most prolific Black women writer in history was a sufficient literary feat in and of itself, Hurston literally died of a broken heart which is a fate that I nearly suffered the day after America’s 246 birthday and the day before my wife’s birthday. On July 5, 2022, I suffered an almost fatal heart attack while pulling weeds in my backyard. After publishing 11 books, 36 scholarly articles and over 3,000 essays and Socratic Dialectical works I still was unable to get a tenured faculty position in the American Academy and almost died like Zora Neale Huston literally of a broken heart.
Notes: Ashley Brasfield, Supreme Court Strikes Down Institutionalized Racism (April 29, 2026); Amy Howe, In major Voting Rights Act case, Supreme Court strikes down redistricting map challenged as racially discriminatory, SCOTUS.Blog.com (April 29, 2026); See generally, Ellis Washington, NIGGER MANIFESTO: Institutional, Intellectual and Ideological Racism Inside the American Academy (2018).
Epilogue—Courage, Sacrifice, Honour, Discipline, Veritas (Truth)—The Reasons Why I taught myself a Classical Education and gave it to my Son, Stone Allen Washington
@CLT_Exam · May 31, 2026
One reason classical education produces more mature young people is because it introduces them to greatness early.
Students spend years around saints, philosophers, statesmen, poets, generals, and missionaries.
They grow up reading about courage, sacrifice, honor, discipline, truth.
Modern education tries to protect students from greatness because greatness creates objective standards. But young people desperately want standards.
They want something higher than themselves to admire and live up to.
*N.B.: See generally, Ellis Washington, Letter of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Exposing the Big Lies of Darwinian Evolution and List of other Prominent Jewish Scholars who Rejected Darwinism on Scientific and Religious Grounds (Aug. 4, 2025).
Epilogue—Zora Neale Hurston was a Writer of Singular Genius Who existed a Century before (or after) her Time
Over the past 8 or 9 years I’ve used as a head quote to many of my psychological essays words that seems to encapsulate all of the Big Lies, political duplicity and historical revisionism society has been bombarded with on a daily basis since the Socialist Revolution of the 1960s, but particularly since the creation of the D.C. Act of 1871 that started the Globalist infiltration by the Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (e.g., the Central Bankers) to takeover America by hijacking their monetary supply and order America’s monetary policy for as the old saying goes regarding ‘The Golden Rule’ = “He that has the gold makes the rules.”
Except with the Rothschild Central Bankers there was a treacherous twist—they didn’t have to steal our gold and silver (which our monetary system was attached to, but they separated the U.S. from the gold standard and based U.S. monetary policy not on gold or silver but on nothing (e.g., fiat or paper currency). All they needed to do was to own the counterfeit printing presses, perpetually raise interest rates and charge We the People increasing interest to buy their fake paper money into perpetuity while the Central Bankers made TRILLIONS!
As we will see in this review and analysis of an AMG_News.org article by Medeea Greere, the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 was just the beginning. The treachery by the Democrat Socialist Party was so comprehensive and complete that it would take the next 100+ years just to begin the process of dismantling their Hitlerian Big Lies and Treason writ large with the legions of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) the foot soldiers of Gestapo of the Progressive Deep State used to enslave every aspect of culture and society including the subject of this essay Black Harlem Renaissance Writer and Anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, and weaponize against the Natural Law and Natural Rights of We the People contained in American Common Law, the Bill of Rights and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The head quote is from a famous scene from the 1999 Sci-Fi Thriller Trilogy The Matrix—
[Morpheus to Neo:] “Everything they told you was a [Big] Lie.”
– The Matrix Movie, Part I (1999)–Construct Scene
*N.B.: See generally, Medeea Greere, Case Closed: JFK Killed After Shutting Down Rothschilds Federal Reserve – List of US Presidents Murdered by the Rothschild Banking Cartel (Feb. 25, 2025).
Since the Garden of Eden when our fore-parents, Adam and Evil first encountered the tautology of Hegelian Dialectic thousands of years before the birth of the German philosopher, Georg Hegel whose name bears that Machiavellian but effective circular reasoning that kills all logic, morality and reasoning every time it is applied. So has the piteous, lonely life of that iconoclastic Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston reminded me of a dystopian episode (they were all dystopian) of the 1960s TV drama The Twilight Zone—
“The Obsolete Man” (Season 2, Episode 29 of The Twilight Zone) is a dystopian 1961 episode written by Rod Serling, featuring Burgess Meredith as Romney Werdsworth, a librarian deemed “obsolete” by a totalitarian state. ‘Werdsworth triumphs over his executioner by proving that individual human dignity, faith, and thought cannot be erased by state-mandated logic [i.e., Democide = Government murder of its citizens]’;.
Like humanity huddled underground in the movie The Matrix, Neo was it’s Messiah, the Savior of Humanity which he eventually was able to save but at the cost of his Life. Like in the Twilight Zone episode “The Obsolete Man” where a seemingly unremarkable librarian is scheduled to be murdered simply because his position is no longer valued by society. This is the anti-tautology Hurston, Professor LaBrew and I found ourselves in the generations we lived, existed and struggled unsuccessfully to “make it” in.
However, we didn’t realize that culture and society for thousands of years have been a controlled Construct manipulated behind the scenes by ubiquitous and wealthy, malevolent and Machiavellian forces pulling the strings behind the shadows. Why? To keep Society to be at war with itself or what Enlightenment English writer and philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)—Bellum omnium contra omnes (The war of all against all). An to achieve and ferment their evil Agenda that was first launched by Satan against Humanity in the Garden of Eden.
Thus, if Hurston was born in 1790, she could have been General George Washington’s slave (that’s bad) but freed 1 year after he died in 1799 (that’s good). She would have predated White Feminism which would occur at the White Woman’s Rights Conference at Seneca Falls, NY (July 1848). She doubtless would have befriended Frederick Douglass and helped him get the vote in 1870 with the help of the newly created Republican Party.
If Hurston was born in 1990, she would have been part of the Millennials Generation and would have been more conservative than the previous generations like the Baby Boomers and Generation X. She probably would be something like Candace Owens without the treachery and self-aggrandizement which is exhausting.
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