Dust Tracks on a Road

Lucy Potts Hurston, Hurston's mother, died when Hurston was just a young girl. Prior to her death, Lucy doted on Hurston and frequently intervened when her husband attempted to squelch the exuberant spirits he assumed would bring the little girl to grief because of her race. Lucy is presented as a formidable woman who encouraged her children to be as ambitious as they dared, despite the limits placed on them by racism. She was a woman who responded with violence against her husband's mistresses and demanded respect.

Hurston's father, John Hurston, was apparently a handsome man from humble Alabama roots who swept the very young Lucy Potts off her feet and convinced her to marry him, over her more affluent family's objections. John Hurston was apparently fathered by a white man. Described by Hurston as a weak, fearful man who lost his way after the death of his first wife, John Hurston is ultimately presented as a father who abandoned Hurston, making her a virtual orphan by the time she was an adolescent.

Hurston claims to have been delivered by a white man who happened to have passed by the Hurston family homestead while Lucy Potts Hurston was giving birth. The man is described by Hurston as rough around the edges, a drinker, foul-mouthed, loud, and much admired by all. This man, unnamed in the memoir, kept in touch with Hurston well into her childhood and taught her important lessons about how to conduct herself with honesty and dignity. This close relationship explains, in part, why Hurston was comfortable striking up friendships with whites.

A Columbia University anthropologist who mentored Hurston while she was a student at Barnard College, the women's college associated with Columbia University, Boas was one of the most important figures in early American anthropology. Boas is an important figure in the memoir because he served as a mentor and sponsor for Hurston as she began her research as a folklorist. A no-nonsense man with a razor-sharp intelligence, Boas pushed Hurston to continue her field research in the South when she became discouraged, and always insisted on intellectual rigor.

Called “Godmother” by Hurston and the other artists whom she gathered around herself, Charlotte Osgood Mason was a wealthy philanthropist who bankrolled many African-American artists, including Hurston, during the Harlem Renaissance. While Hurston was happy to focus her research on the folk culture that interested Mason, other artists, such as Langston Hughes, believed their artistic autonomy was limited by these demands and Mason’s imperious manner.

Identified only by the initials, P.M.P is likely Albert Price III, Hurston's second husband. Hurston describes Price as "tall, dark-brown, magnificently built," a man with "a fine mind" that rivaled her own (205). The marriage was marred by jealousy and physical fights. Hurston's attempt to escape what she came to see as an obsession with Price led her to go further and further afield to do field work in the Caribbean, where she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Their marriage ended two years later and was just one of Hurston's many romantic misadventures.

One of Hurston's first decent jobs as a teen was as an assistant and lady's maid to Ms. M., an actress in a traveling musical theater troupe. Hurston describes Ms. M. as an easy employer who doted on Hurston—she even went so far as to pay for Hurston's course in manicuring—but one who was subject to wild mood swings and a deep sadness that Hurston later learned was the result of difficult circumstances at home that led Ms. M. to become a performer in order to support her family. Ms. M. is one of several important white, female employers who encouraged Hurston to continue her education.

The first marshal of Maitland, Florida, and the first mayor of Eatonville, Joe Clarke was one of the key players in creating the unusual, all-black town where Hurston grew up. Clarke is also important in Hurston’s life because the porch on the front of his store served as a community hub where Hurston was exposed to African-American oral and folk culture.

Mrs. M. is the mother of Ms. M., Charlie, and Johnnie. Hurston presents Mrs. M. as a tragic figure who gave up her profession to assume responsibility for her son Johnnie, an ex-offender who was released to his mother’s parole after killing someone while drunk.

Johnnie M. is Ms. M.’s eldest brother and a violent ex-offender who served time for killing a man as a 17-year old.

An older sister of Hurston and John Hurston’s favorite child, Sarah Hurston left school and married shortly after John Hurston’s second marriage in order to escape ill treatment. The enmity between Sarah and the second Mrs. Hurston did much to fracture Hurston’s family. Hurston describes Sarah as petite and spoiled.

One of Hurston’s brothers, Bob Hurston was a successful doctor who took Hurston in while she was a teen. Although Bob assured Hurston she could stop work and continue her education, his true motive—securing unpaid help for his overwhelmed wife—makes him one of the many obstacles Hurston encountered as she struggled to finish school.

Described by Hurston as a stout, vindictive woman who disliked and neglected her stepchildren, the second Mrs. Hurston was in part responsible for Hurston’s orphan-like status during late childhood and her teen years.

A successful white writer who supported progressive causes, Fanny Hurst served as Hurston’s employer while Hurston was a student at Barnard. Hurston describes Hurst as a friend and an eccentric, impulsive woman given to dressing in striking black-and-white ensembles.