Now recognized as one of the most significant figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was at the time of the publication of Dust Tracks on a Road a struggling but well-known writer and academic who had managed to overcome a childhood of poverty in Eatonville, Florida. Hurston sketches a childhood that was almost idyllic and in which her desire to learn and to bask in the oral culture and beautiful, wild environs of southern Florida turned her into a curious child whose vivid imagination grew virtually unfettered.

Hurston's life took a tragic turn with the death of her mother, Lucy Potts, who had frequently intervened when Hurston became the target of her father's rage. Hurston became a virtual orphan during her adolescence and was forced to work menial jobs, give up going to school, and depend upon the charity of her mother's old friends to survive. Hurston represents herself as having been disheartened by this turn of events but committed to continuing her education. Hurston was eventually able to continue her education at Morgan State's high-school program, Howard University, and Barnard College because of her willingness to work to support herself, her obvious intelligence, and her ability to form and maintain relationships.