Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
19 jurisdictions · Banned 1990-2025 · Published
Their Eyes Were Watching God is Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel about a Black woman's quest for identity through three marriages in early-twentieth-century Florida, banned or restricted in 19+ U.S. jurisdictions.
Why it was banned
The novel was initially overlooked by mainstream critics and was nearly lost until Alice Walker rediscovered it in the 1970s. Once it entered school curricula, it began drawing challenges for its use of Black vernacular English, its frank treatment of sexuality, and its depictions of domestic violence in Janie's marriages.
Cited reasons
- sexual content
- racial dialect
- language
Primary states
Virginia, Texas, Florida
Why it matters
Their Eyes Were Watching God is now considered one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century. Janie Crawford is one of the first fully-realized Black female protagonists in American literature. Hurston was a Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist who recorded the folk culture of the rural South. The novel was nearly forgotten until Walker's 1975 essay In Search of Zora Neale Hurston restored it to the canon.
Themes
- Black womanhood
- Harlem Renaissance
- Southern Black culture
- American classics
Where to buy
The Ledger recommends Black-owned booksellers. Each stocks this title or can order it.
- MahoganyBooksNational Harbor, Maryland · Founded
Independent bookstore specializing in books written for, by, and about people of the African diaspora.
- Marcus BooksOakland, California · Founded
The oldest independent Black-owned bookstore in the United States, named for political activist Marcus Garvey.
- Hakim's BookstorePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania · Founded
Philadelphia's oldest Black-owned bookstore, specializing in African American history, philosophy, and religion.
- Semicolon Bookstore and GalleryChicago, Illinois · Founded
Chicago's only Black woman-owned independent bookstore, with a mission to raise literacy rates among Chicago Public School students.
The Ledger may earn commission on affiliate links. All commissions route to Black-owned booksellers.
Related banned books
Books in the catalog that share themes with this one.
Documented by The Ledger. A record of what Black America built and what was taken.
Book cover via Open Library. Editorial use under fair use.