Everyday Black History ~ Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930 to politically-active parents Carl, a real estate broker, and Nannie, a schoolteacher. When she was in third grade, Lorraine and her family were forced to move from the all white neighborhood they had moved into on Chicago's South Side after taunting, harassment and a lower court ruling that upheld restrictive housing covenants in Chicago which barred blacks from moving into white areas. Carl Hansberry challenged the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in his favor and struck down restrictive housing covenants. (Hansberry v. Lee, 1940)

In addition to her interest in theater, Hansberry also dabbled in art and studied painting at several schools, including the Art Institute of Chicago. Later, while a student at New York's New School for Social Research, Hansberry met Paul Robeson and began working first as a reporter and later as an associate editor for Freedom, Robeson's newspaper.

Hansberry's marriage to writer/community activist Robert Nemiroff, her interest in writing essays and plays, and her childhood experiences with racism and discrimination were perhaps combined inspiration for A Raisin in the Sun, the first version of which she wrote in 1957. The play's title was adapted from Harlem by Langston Hughes in which he "prophesied the dire consequences of a "dream deferred" drying up "like a raisin in the sun" and festering and exploding like the dynamite of "frustrated hopes and pent-up folk consciousness."

A Raisin in the Sun was the first Broadway play to have been written by a black female playwright and was the first significant black play on Broadway since Langston Hughes' Mulatto in 1936. 

After successful runs on the road -- New Haven, Philadelphia, et al -- A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959 in a run of 538 performances. Hansberry won a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the Year - 1959.

Following its successful Broadway run, A Raisin in the Sun was made into a film, released in 1961 starring Sidney Poitier, Louis Gossett and Claudia McNeil, all of whom recreated their roles from the stage drama.

Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer on January 12, 1965 in New York City. Hundreds were in attendance at her funeral held at Harlem's Church of the Master on 122nd Street, including such luminaries as Paul Robeson and Ossie Davis. Another of the attendees at Hansberry's funeral was Malcolm X, who ironically would be laid to rest just six weeks later after being assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

A virtual space called the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, was created in 2014 and is dedicated to showcasing the life and artistry of Lorraine Hansberry, whose powerful presence and creativity has maintained its relevance 50 years after her death. 

Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, a well-received PBS documentary on the life of Lorraine Hansberry, narrated by actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson, debuted in January, 2018 as part of the American Masters series. 

Source: The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential African-Americans, Past and Present, Columbus Salley (1993).