Howard, Lillie P., ed., Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: The Common Bond, Greenwood Press, 1993.

Hurston is an influential writer for many African American authors, and Walker has been among her most outspoken champions. Here, Howard analyzes Hurston's and Walker's writings to find similarities and areas of influence.

Klarman, Michael J., From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Beginning with 1896's Plessy v. Ferguson, Klarman summarizes landmark Supreme Court decisions as they pertain to racial issues and civil rights. In addition to the facts of the cases themselves, Klarman includes the political and social contexts and ramifications for each case.

Peters, Pearlie Mae Fisher, The Assertive Woman in Zora Neale Hurston's Fiction, Folklore, and Drama, Garland Publishing, 1998.

Hurston, an independent and outspoken woman, is credited with creating assertive female characters that were in many...