Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

This episode of "American Experience" is about a person you never would have heard about on any show...other than this one. After all, a relatively forgotten and uncelebrated anthropologist and writer isn't exactly what you'd normally see on TV. But Zora Neal Hurston is the sort of relatively unknown and seldom celebrated person the series loves championing.

Zora was incredibly unusual. In her day, black people, let alone black women simply didn't get college degrees...though she did. And, in her day, no one cared to document black lives...often ordinary black peoples' lives...and not in their own vernacular. Zora did all that...even though it meant a career where she seldom was celebrated and was often scratching to make a living.

Overall, I found this episode well made but it just didn't do much for me personally. Now understand...this doesn't mean it's bad in any way...it just didn't excite me as much as most episodes in the series.