You don’t know us negroes – and other essays –

“… is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the birth of the Harlem Renaissance through the early days of the civil rights movement, Hurson’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life.

Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black culture rather than destroying it. In surviving, Black people reinterpreted every aspect of American culture – “modifying the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.”  Hurston lifted the veil white supremacy casts on Black people and revealed the soul of the race. “