Zora Neale Hurston: staunch conservative. This is interesting, if a little ambiguous and sometimes contradictory. But contradiction, it seems, is part of what makes Hurston such a polarizing literary figure. I wonder: would she have voted for Barack Obama or John McCain?

Hurston, then, has taken her place in the Harlem Renaissance diorama, and it would be easy for us to read the knowing grin she wears in photos as signaling her recognition that Black Is Beautiful. That was true, to a point. But she was more eccentrically self-directed than many of her fans today realize, a fervent Republican who would be at home today on Fox News and whose racial pride led her to some unorthodox conclusions. Zora Neale Hurston's grin was a quiet challenge to black people as well as white, and it still is.