Joy of the Black South: Zora Neale Hurston and the Politics of Black Joy—A Review Essay

Randal Maurice Jelks is Professor of African and African American Studies and American Studies at the University of Kansas. He is an award-winning author and a documentary film producer. His books are African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids, Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography, Faith and Struggle in the Lives of Four African Americans: Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, Eldridge Cleaver and Muhammad Ali, and Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America. Jelks has recently contributed to a collection of essays titled 42 Today: Jack Robinson and His Legacy, edited by Michael Long. His writings have appeared in the Boston Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Truthout, as well as other national blogs, journals, magazines, and newspapers.