How it Feels to be Colored Me

by Zora Neale Hurston

Overview

"How It Feels To Be Colored Me" by Florida native Zora Neale Hurston was originally published in The World Tomorrow in May 1928. In this autobiographical piece about her own color, Hurston reflects on her early childhood in an all-black Florida town and her first experiences in life feeling "different." In this beautiful piece, Hurston largely focuses on the similarities we all share and on her own self-identity in the face of difference. "Through it all, I remain myself." This short work is part of Applewood's "American Roots" series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America's most famous writers and thinkers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429096171
Publisher:	Applewood Books
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Series:	American Roots
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	455,007
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and folklorist, is best known for her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. Other classics include the acclaimed short story Sweat. She was deemed "one of the greatest writers of our time" by the novelist Toni Morrison. With the publication of Lies and Other Tall Tales, The Skull Talks Back, and What's the Hurry, Fox? new readers will be introduced to her extraordinary legacy.

Date of Birth:

January 7, 1891

Date of Death:

January 28, 1960

Place of Birth:

Eatonville, Florida

Place of Death:

Fort Pierce, Florida

Education:

B.A., Barnard College, 1928 (the school's first black graduate). Went on to study anthropology at Columbia University.

Read an Excerpt

"In America, colors seems to define our differences: black and white, blue and gray, red and blue. Divisiveness abounds, until we scrape away the surface and find the subtle and not-so-subtle layers of color in each of our souls and, through that, our common humanity. I have no idea what people see when they look at my color. I am a shade of white, white enough not to understand completely what it must feel to be judged as black. Inside, however, I feel the primary colors of me: the pale blue of conscious thought, the fiery red of urgency, and the golden yellow of hope." —Phil Zuckerman, Publisher