IV

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 129

Expressing the sense of the Congress that a postage stamp should be issued

to honor Zora Neale Hurston.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 29, 1997

Ms. BROWN of Florida (for herself, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. MCCOLLUM, Ms. ROSLEHTINEN, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. WATT of North Carolina, Mrs. MEEK

of Florida, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. LEWIS of

Georgia, Mr. CLYBURN, Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri, Ms. CHRISTIANGREEN, Mr. FROST, Mr. DELLUMS, Mrs. CLAYTON, Ms. NORTON, Mr.

BONIOR, Mr. BROWN of California, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Ms.

CARSON, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. PAYNE, Mr.

FILNER, Ms. STABENOW, Ms. DELAURO, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. RUSH,

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. DAVIS of

Illinois, Mr. TORRES, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma, Mr.

SNYDER, and Mr. GOSS) submitted the following concurrent resolution;

which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that a postage stamp

should be issued to honor Zora Neale Hurston.

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston is one of the most famous

American writers, folklorists, and interpreters of Southern rural African-American culture;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston made significant contributions

to the study and understanding of the American South’s
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•HCON 129 IH

folkways, and has enriched the American literary landscape;

Whereas some of Zora Neale Hurston’s literary accomplishments include her autobiography, ‘‘Dust Tracks On A

Road’’; four novels, ‘‘Jonah’s Gourd Vine’’, ‘‘Their Eyes

Were Watching God’’, ‘‘Moses, Man of the Mountain’’,

and ‘‘Seraph on the Sewanee’’; two collections of folklore,

‘‘Of Men and Mules’’ and ‘‘Tell My Horse’’; and numerous short stories, articles, and plays;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston collaborated on works and associated with Langston Hughes and other notables of the

Harlem Renaissance;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston led an extraordinary life beyond

the literary field as an anthropologist in the American

South, the West Indies, and Haiti;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston also worked as a journalist,

teacher, and librarian;

Whereas recent Library of Congress discoveries of play

manuscripts have furthered the revival of interest in Zora

Neale Hurston;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston has been listed in the book,

‘‘Black Female Playwrights’’, as ‘‘the most prolific and

widely published female black writer of her era’’, and is

seen as a major literary African-American female voice of

the first half of the twentieth century;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston was inducted into the Women’s

Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1994, and

the State of Florida’s Writer’s Hall of Fame in 1990;

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston has influenced famous authors

and poets such as Maya Angelou, Toni Kay Bombara,

and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison;
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•HCON 129 IH

Whereas Zora Neale Hurston has been recognized for her literary genius by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice

Walker and literary scholar Robert Hemenway; and

Whereas the legacy of Zora Neale Hurston has inspired the

establishment of the Zora Neale Hurston Society at Morgan State University and the annual Zora Neale Hurston

Festival of Arts and Humanities in America’s first African-American incorporated town of Eatonville, Florida:

Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—

3 (1) the United States Postal Service should

4 issue a postage stamp in honor of Zora Neale

5 Hurston;

6 (2) such stamp should be unveiled at the 1999

7 Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida;

8 and

9 (3) a copy of this resolution should be sent to

10 the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee of the

11 United States Postal Service and the Postmaster

12 General.

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