The Sanctified Church

by Zora Neale Hurston

Copyright 1981 Turtle Island Foundation

Genres: Religion, Folklore, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Essays, African American

107 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

Novels, including Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and nonfiction writings of American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston give detailed accounts of African American life in the South.

In 1925, Hurston, one of the leaders of the literary renaissance, happening in Harlem, produced the short-lived literary magazine Fire!! alongside Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman shortly before she entered Barnard College. This literary movement developed into the Harlem renaissance.

Hurston applied her Barnard ethnographic training to document African American folklore in her critically acclaimed book Mules and Men alongside fiction Their Eyes Were Watching God . She also assembled a folk-based performance dance group that recreated her Southern tableau with one performance on Broadway.

People awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to Hurston to travel to Haiti and conduct research on conjure in 1937. Her significant work ably broke into the secret societies and exposed their use of drugs to create the Vodun trance, also a subject of study for fellow dancer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham, then at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the Pittsburgh Courier assigned Hurston, unable to sell her fiction, to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local lottery racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. Hurston also contributed to Woman in the Suwanee County Jail , a book by journalist and civil rights advocate William Bradford Huie.

Reviews

[Snookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love her books I collect them.

[J]

(FROM JACKET)"The Sanctified Church"is a collection of Hurston's ground-breaking essays on Afro-American folklore, legend, popular mythology, and, in particular, the unique spiritual character of the Southern Black Christian Church. Along with preserving the customs, music, speech and humor of rural Black America, "The Sanctified Church" introduces us to such extraordinary figures as Mother Catherine, a matriarchal founder of a highly personal Voodoo Christian sect; Uncle Monday, healer, conjurer and powerful herb doctor; and High John de Conquer, the trickster/shaman figure of freedom and laughter still honored in parts of rural Black America today. A pioneering ethnographer and folklore scholar, the great Zora Neale Hurston captured the exuberance, vitality and genius of Black culture with a vividness and authority unmatched by any other writer.

[Jaina Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult for a modern person to appreciate the true genius of ZNH's work, nearly a century after she began her anthropological magic. It's easy to take for granted, or even be "over" the colloquial speech patterns written phonetically, the spotlights on obscure-but-fascinating folks. It's easy to forget she was an academic, and these are her reports.

Reading this made me crave more. Thankfully, more is available.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very stimulating little collection of short pieces about colored life in the old South. Not a comprehensive study, nor a work of academic ethnography, this is rather a group of journalistic essays, each describing an aspect of life or a legendary character. Some of the latter are among the most interesting; imaginary figures that the slaves used to keep their spirits up, individuals whom the white man could not defeat and dominate, or who were in touch with the realm of the supernatural, e.g. Uncle Monday, High John de Conquer, and Daddy Mention. Mother Catherine is another wise and spooky figure, but she seems to be delineated from real life. The other pieces in the book examine cultural aspects of the black experience, with the emphasis placed primarily on the black church and the unique quality and characteristics of African American spiritual expression. A book well worth reading, and one that makes me curious about Hurston's fiction (for which she is better known). Strangely enough, I don't think that Prof. Douglas spent any time discussing Hurston's fiction, although I have no idea why.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthropological trip through the spirit of the Black church in beautifully composed articles. From root workers and conjurers to the full text of a sermon, Hurston goes all in on the experience of the spiritual and the elements of worship for African Americans. Brief book, essential history.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something so lovably engaging about this woman’s work — over the years whenever I’ve read her various writing — in whatever book she is found to occupy herself with — she draws one in, captivates and provokes affection with her researched and shared stories.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now here's some beautiful prose, sharp observation, humor, and a lively sense of commitment.

[Peacejanz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read every word in this book and I believe that some of it may be written by Zora Neale Hurston. It is compiled by Toni Cade Bambara who is not an academic but a person who works in TV. From the first page, I know there must be a lot of mistakes. Under "Some Forward Remarks", Bambara has written that Zora's grave is in Eatonville, Fla. with a marker erected by Alice Walker.

Zora Neale Hurston's grave is in Fort Pierce, Florida and has the marker erected by Alice Walker who searched out the grave. Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville - a community hundreds of miles from Fort Pierce. I live in Fort Pierce, Florida and have been to this gravesite. Such an egregious error makes me doubt the validity of this book. What else did Bambara get wrong? What else did Bambara add to Hurston's actual writings? What else did Bambara leave out? The editor is not to be trusted.

Furthermore, this book is very dated now. It was published in 1981 and the material about music, churches, medical information, etc. is not so relevant today. If you want actual information, go to materials by actual researchers who write accurately.