ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was a woman who wrote stories and books a long time ago. She was born in the year 1891 and grew up in a town called Eatonville in Florida. When she was a little girl, she liked to listen to stories and tell her own stories too.

Zora went to school when she was a girl, but she didn't like it very much because she felt like she wasn't learning what she wanted to learn. When she got older, she went to college to study different things like writing and anthropology, which is the study of people and their cultures.

Zora became famous for writing stories and books that talked about the lives of African American people. She wrote about things like what it was like to grow up black in the south of the United States, and how people faced discrimination and racism because of the color of their skin.

One of Zora's most famous books is called "Their Eyes Were Watching God." In this book, she tells the story of a woman named Janie who learns how to stand up for herself and live life on her own terms. The book became very popular and people liked it because it showed a strong and confident woman who goes through many struggles in her life.

Zora wrote lots of other books too and she became an important figure in African American literature. Even though she faced many challenges in her life, including poverty and racism, she didn't give up on writing and telling her stories. Today, people still read her books and study her work because she was an important voice for African American culture and history.