Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930–January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, poet, and civil rights activist. She is best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. Hansberry was born into a family that was active in the Black community of Chicago. She was raised in an atmosphere suffused with activism and intellectual rigor. Visitors to her childhood home included such Black luminaries as Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Dubois, Paul Robeson, and Jesse Owens. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin for two years and she briefly attended the Art Institute in Chicago, where she studied painting. Desiring to pursue her longtime interest in writing and theater, she then moved to New York to attend the New School for Social Research. She also began work for Paul Robeson's progressive black newspaper Freedom, first as a writer and then an associate editor. She attended the Intercontinental Peace Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1952, when Paul Robeson was denied a passport to attend.
Hansberry’s first play, "A Raisin in the Sun," opened on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. The play, with themes both universally human and specifically about racial discrimination and sexist attitudes, was successful and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Within two years, it was translated into 35 different languages and was performed all over the world. Lorraine Hansberry was commissioned to write a television drama on slavery, which she completed as "The Drinking Gourd," but it was not produced. Moving with her husband Robert Nemiroff to Croton-on-Hudson, Lorraine Hansberry continued not only her writing but also her involvement with civil rights and other political protests. In 1964, "The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality" was published for SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) with text by Hansberry. She was the first black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. She and her words were the inspiration for Nina Simone's song "To Be Young Gifted and Black." In 2017, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Archives
Lorraine Hansberry Papers, New York Public Library (Schomburg Center) →
Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry Collection, University of Delaware →
Digital Resources
Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust →
Lorraine Hansberry Biographical Timeline, PBS American Masters →