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. ROS-
LEHTINEN, 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. CHRISTIAN-
GREEN, 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 Over-
sight
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 South-
ern rural African-American culture;
Whereas Zora Neale Hurston made significant contributions
to the study and understanding of the American South’s
•HCON 129 IH
folkways, and has enriched the American literary land-
scape;
Whereas some of Zora Neale Hurston’s literary accomplish-
ments 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 numer-
ous short stories, articles, and plays;
Whereas Zora Neale Hurston collaborated on works and asso-
ciated 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;
•HCON 129 IH
Whereas Zora Neale Hurston has been recognized for her lit-
erary 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 Mor-
gan State University and the annual Zora Neale Hurston
Festival of Arts and Humanities in America’s first Afri-
can-American incorporated town of Eatonville, Florida:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—
(1) the United States Postal Service should
issue a postage stamp in honor of Zora Neale
Hurston;
(2) such stamp should be unveiled at the 1999
Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida;
and
(3) a copy of this resolution should be sent to
the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee of the
United States Postal Service and the Postmaster
General.
Æ