Zora Neale Hurston to get a Stamp!

[PrettyKitty]

http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/pr.../pr020906a.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2002 CONTACT: David Simon
(202) 225-0123 or (202) 226-0115

Congresswoman Brown Gets Stamp Named After Eatonville 20th Century Writer/Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston

(Washington, DC) Congresswoman Corrine Brown was elated to hear that after years of persistently working to get a stamp to honor the writer/folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston, the U.S. Postal Service announced that they are honoring Zora Neale Hurston with a commemorative postage stamp. Zora, an Eatonville native, is indisputably one of the most famous African American writers, folklorists, and interpreters of southern rural African American culture to date, and is more than deserving of this honor.

"Over the last six years and in the last three Congresses I introduced legislation calling for a postage stamp to honor Zora Neale Hurston, a woman who enriched the American literary landscape with works including 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and 'Dust Tracks On A Road.' Hurston was a major African American female voice in the first half of the twentieth century and is long overdue for this recognition. This is an honor not only for African American women but for the state of Florida,"said Congresswoman Brown.

Hurston, 1891-1960, is honored annually at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of Arts and Humanities in Eatonville, Florida, America's first African-American incorporated town where she spent her formative years. Congresswoman Brown plans to make next year’s 14th annual Eatonville festival entitled “On Stage Celebrating 50 Years of Black Theater,” (scheduled to take place from January 23rd-26th, 2003) a special commemoration to Zora. Hurston was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1994, and the State of Florida's Writers Hall of Fame in 1990.