http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/eyes/

Question

Be sure to read the entire section called Context. Make note of when she lived, when and where she was educated, when she published, etc.

All those times can be cross referenced with a good timetable or article about the whole post-Civil War and Civil Rights Movement era:

http://www.animatedatlas.com/timeline.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement#Civil_Rights_Movement_in_the_United_States

In addition, you should read several articles about the American Literature canon (which is always changing, by the way):
http://www.google.com/search?q=american+lit+canon&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA

Once you have formulated a rough draft of a main-idea sentence, please repost and someone here will be happy to critique your thinking.

=)

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "Zora Neale Hurston" to get these possible sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zor.htm
http://www.zoranealehurston.com/
(Broken Link Removed)
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hurston_z.htm

These should suggest at topic for you plus give you information. There are more sources out there, if you wish to continue the search. In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.