In the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States.

She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Nearly every black woman writer of significance - including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker - acknowledges Zora Neale Hurston as their literary foremother.

Ibram X. Kendi is Founding Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University in Washington, DC, where he is also Professor of History and International Relations. His previous book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, won the National Book Award 2016.