Zora Neale Hurston died in Ft. Pierce Florida in 1960. Vero Beach, where I attended an all-white school in a segregated state, was less than fifteen miles away. I learned about Zora Neale Hurston’s existence years later, she being a writer whose reputation only rose decades after her death in obscure poverty. Florida school curriculums would not have included anyone like her at that time. In 1960 I was sixteen, thinking I was a writer, and the fifteen miles between me and one of the great writers of the 20th century might as well have been fifteen thousand.
Zora Neale Hurston died in Ft. Pierce Florida in 1960. Vero Beach, where I attended an all-white school in a segregated state, was less than fifteen miles away. I learned about Zora Neale Hurston’s existence years later, she being a writer whose reputation only rose decades after her death in obscure poverty. Florida school curriculums would not have included anyone like her at that time. In 1960 I was sixteen, thinking I was a writer, and the fifteen miles between me and one of the great writers of the 20th century might as well have been fifteen thousand.
What a moving account you’ve shared here. Interestingly enough, my college roommate during my undergrad years at Ohio State was from Vero Beach.
Yet another six degrees of separation story! I graduated from Vero in '62 and I believe they integrated the schools a couple years later.