Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Alabama to her parents who were freedmen or people who used to be enslaved. When she was still a child, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida which was the first all-black town with its own local laws in the United States. After her mother died, Hurston worked to grow her education and later ended up in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. This was an influential period in Hurston's life as she saw African Americans have more pride in their identity. The result of the Harlem Renaissance was a rise in the number of African Americans who could read and write, which made it easier for them to express themselves using art.