"One of the most acclaimed artists of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston was a gifted novelist, playwright, and essayist. Drawn from three decades of her work, this anthology showcases her development as a writer, from her early pieces expounding on the beauty and precision of African American art to some of her final published works, covering the sensational trial of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman convicted in 1952 for killing a white doctor. Among the selections are Hurston's well-known works such as "How It Feels to be Colored Me" and "My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience." The essays in this essential collection are grouped thematically and cover a panoply of topics, including politics, race and gender, and folkloric study from the height of the Harlem Renaissance to the early years of the Civil Rights movement. Demonstrating the breadth of this revered and influential writer's work, You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays is an invaluable chronicle of a writer's development and a window into her world and time"-- Provided by publisher.

Part One: On the Folk.Bits of Our Harlem -- High John de Conquer -- The Last Slave Ship -- Characteristics of Negro Expression -- Conversions and Visions -- Shouting -- Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals -- Ritualistic Expression from the Lips of the Communicants of the Seventh Day Church of God -- Part Two: On Art and Such. You don't Know Us Negroes -- Fannie Hurst -- Art and Such -- Stories of Conflict -- The Chick with One Hen -- Jazz Regarded as Social Achievement -- Review of Voodoo in New Orleans by Robert Tallant -- What White Publishers Won't Print -- Part Three: On Race and Gender. The Hue and Cry About Howard University -- The Emperor Effaces Himself -- The Ten Commandments of Charm -- Noses -- How It Feels to Be Colored Me -- Race Cannot Become Great Until It Recognizes Its Talent -- Now Take Noses -- Lawrence of the River -- My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience -- The Lost Keys of Glory -- The South Was Had -- Take for Instance Spessard Holland -- Part Four: On Politics. The "Pet Negro" System -- Negroes Without Self-Pity -- The Rise of the Begging Joints -- Crazy for This Democracy -- I Saw Negro Votes Peddled -- Mourner's Bench -- A Negro Voter Sizes Up Taft -- Court Order Can't Make Races Mix -- Which Way the NAACP? -- Part Five: On the Trial of Ruby McCollum. Zora's Revealing Story of Ruby's 1st Day in Court! -- Victim of Fate! -- Ruby Sane! -- Ruby McCollum Fights for Life -- Bare Plot Against Ruby -- Trial Highlights -- Justice and Fair Play Aim of Judge Adams as Ruby Goes on Trial -- McCollum-Adams Trial Highlights -- Ruby Bares Her Love Life -- Ruby's Story: Doctor's Threats, Tussle over Gun Led to Slaying! -- Ruby's Troubles Mount: Named in $100,000 Lawsuit! -- The Life Story of Mrs. Ruby J. McCollum! -- My Impressions of the Trial.