EATONVILLE, Fla. – Members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. from around the nation traveled to Eatonville for ZORA! Fest 2020.
Zora Neale Hurston is the person the festival is named after. She was a well-known African American author, anthropologist and filmmaker.
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Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama and later moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894.
She would later use the town as the setting for many of her stories that made an impact on literary culture.
Literature and education were very important to her.
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She was one of the first initiates of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, a sorority founded in 1920 by and for black women. She pledged the sorority’s Alpha Chapter as a student at Howard University.
According to the sorority’s website, “The purpose of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is to foster the ideas of service, charity, scholarship, civil and cultural endeavors, sisterhood and finer womanhood.”
Years later, the mission is still being carried out through women across the nation.
You can find event details and read a history of ZORA! Fest at ZoraFestival.org.