Zora Neale Hurston was an American author and anthropologist of the 19th century. Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Her parents John and Lucy Ann Hurston were former slaves. She was the fifth of eight children, to her parents John Hurston, a carpenter and Baptist preacher, and Lucy Potts Hurston, a former schoolteacher. Her father moved his family to Florida when Zora was still a young child. He later served as mayor of the town where they lived. Zora’s mother died in 1904 and her father remarried almost immediately. She was sent to boarding school in Jacksonville but was eventually kicked out when her father stopped paying her tuition. She worked as a maid for a travelling theatrical company in order to support herself and continue her education. Hurston enrolled at Morgan College in 1917 and graduated a year later in 1918. Then she enrolled at Howard University for her undergraduate degree. There she studied Spanish, English and Greek along with public speaking and co-founded a student newspaper called The Hilltop where she published some of her earliest work. She completed her degree in 1920.