Lorraine Hansberry, Activist and Playwright | Biography Hansberry was born May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of four children. In 1959, Hansberry was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play for A Raisin in the Sun, making her the first black playwright and the youngest playwright to win the award at the time. Lorraine believed that the artists voice in whatever medium was to be as an agent for social change. Clybourne Park is a "spin-off" of Lorraine Hansberry's famous 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, meaning that it centers around some of the play's peripheral events and characters.Specifically, the main characters of A Raisin in the Sun the Younger familywill eventually move into the house in which Clybourne Park is set. [1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. Lorraine Hansberry The Member of the Wedding The Metamorphosis The Natural The Plague The Plot Against America The Portrait of a Lady The Power of Sympathy The Red Badge of Courage The Road The Road from Coorain The Sound and the Fury The Stone Angel The Stranger The Sun Also Rises The Temple of My Familiar The Three Musketeers The 15th was also Dr. King's birthday. In 1960, during Delta Sigma Theta's 26th national convention in Chicago, Hansberry was made an honorary member. Racism in A Raisin in the Sun - Video & Lesson Transcript - Study.com Fact 5: Indeed, Lorraine was an outspoken political activist from a young age. The thing I tried to show was the many gradations in even one Negro family, the clash of the old and the new, but most of all the unbelievable courage of the Negro people.. Lorraine Hansberry Biography, Life, Interesting Facts Not only did Hansberry address social and racial issues in her novels and plays, but she also wrote articles true to her voice and beliefs for a progressive Black journal, James Baldwin was her close friend and confidant. . Lorraines mother, Nannie Hansberry, was also active in the struggle for civil rights. It went on to inspire generations of playwrights and performers. Fact 2: Lorraine was raised in the South Side of Chicago. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger's life insurance policy. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. For some facts about W.E.B Du Bois CLICK HERE, Theatrical release poster for the 1961 film. It was, in fact, a requirement for human decency (150). In Perrys words, this moment captures the tension . Updates? . Lorraine Hansberry, (born May 19, 1930, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.died January 12, 1965, New York, New York), American playwright whose A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Carl died in 1946 when Lorraine was fifteen years old; "American racism helped kill him," she later said. According to historian Fanon Che Wilkins, "Hansberry believed that gaining civil rights in the United States and obtaining independence in colonial Africa were two sides of the same coin that presented similar challenges for Africans on both sides of the Atlantic." Open your heart to what I mean Risking public censure and process of being outed to the larger community, she joined the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization, and submitted letters and short stories to queer publications Ladder and ONE. When Lorraine was seven years old, the family bought a house in a mostly white neighborhood. Discover Walks contributors speak from all corners of the world - from Prague to Bangkok, Barcelona to Nairobi. Lorraine Hansberry - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help Kicks. When she was young, her family famously fought against racial segregation, attempting to buy a home that was covered by a racially restrictive covenantultimately leading to the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee. Lorraine Hansberry - Blackfacts.com Unfortunately, Lorraine Hansberry passed away in 1965, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom was not established until 1969. Lorraine Hansberry Biography - eNotes.com Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930. Lorraine Hansberry timeline | Timetoast timelines Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a. Suggested Posts. The Hansberrys were a proud middle class family, who valued social and political involvement. The play was the first one to be produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and won an award at the Cannes Film Festival when its motion picture came out. Hansberry was a critic of existentialism, which she considered too distant from the world's economic and geopolitical realities. She left behind an unfinished novel and several other plays, including The Drinking Gourd and What Use Are Flowers?, with a range of content, from slavery to a post-apocalyptic future. Posted at 04:07 PM in Beacon Staff, Biography and Memoir, Emily Powers, Imani Perry, Literature and the Arts, Looking for Lorraine, Queer Perspectives, Race and Ethnicity in America | Permalink Picture Information. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the late 1940s, but she left before completing her degree. Founded in 2004 and officially launched in 2006, The Hansberry Project of Seattle, Washington was created as an African-American theatre lab, led by African-American artists and was designed to provide the community with consistent access to the African-American artistic voice. She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. Although the couple separated in 1957 and divorced in 1962, their professional relationship lasted until Hansberry's death. The granddaughter of a freed slave, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, to a successful real estate broker and a school teacher who resided in Chicago, Illinois. Along these lines, she wrote a critical review of Richard Wright's The Outsider and went on to style her final play Les Blancs as a foil to Jean Genet's absurdist Les Ngres. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" She attended the University of WisconsinMadison, where she immediately became politically active with the Communist Party USA and integrated a dormitory. Fact 6: In 1963, she met with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in New York City days after the protests and unrest in Birmingham Alabama (along with her close friend James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Clarence Jones and Jerome Smith, among others). She extended her hand. Lorraine Hansberry, child of a cultured, middle-class black family but early exposed to the poverty and discrimination suffered by most blacks in America, fought passionately against racism in her writings and throughout her life. . She explored the issues of colonialism and imperialism through her own lens as well as the female perspective. Lorraine Hansberry became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and joined people like Lena Horne and James Baldwin to test Robert Kennedys position on civil rights. She herself, knew what it was to be discriminated against. $26.95. Now More Than Ever, Nine Radical and Radiant Facts You Should Know About Lorraine Hansberry, When Colin Kaepernick Took the Risk to Take a Knee, Coming Home to the Motherland and Coming Out: A Cup Of Water Under My Bed Gets Translated to Spanish, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Ring In the Zinntennial! While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. . Leo Hansberry was a prominent figure in the Pan-Africanist movement, and he founded the African Civilization section at Howard University, where he was a professor of African history. It was previously ruled that African Americans were not allowed to purchase property in the Washington Park subdivision in Chicago, Illinois. He even took his battle against racially restrictive housing covenants to the Supreme Court, winning a major victory in the landmark case Hansberry v. Lee. The Lorraine Hansberry residence, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, is nationally significant for its association with the pioneering Black lesbian playwright, writer, and activist, Lorraine Hansberry. In his remarks, President Obama noted that Lorraine Hansberry refused to be confined by any identity but her own, and helped blaze a trail for generations of Americans who have been inspired by her example.. Her own familys landmark court case against discriminatory real estate covenants in Chicago would serve as inspiration for her seminal Broadway play, A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry is often viewed as a visionary because of her ability to predict many of the relevant issues to the African-American community today. Perry explains that though the term radical has negative associations, for Lorraine, American radicalism was both a passion and a commitment. The play was a critical and commercial success. The late artist also has a school, Lorraine Hansberry Academy, in the Bronx named after her as well as an elementary school in Queen, New York, titled in her honor. James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberrys biography, Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life. . Hansberry kept a low profile of her identity as a lesbian. Her mother, Nannie Hansberry, was a schoolteacher and a member of the NAACP. $5.42. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. According to Kevin J. Mumford, however, beyond reading homophile magazines and corresponding with their creators, "no evidence has surfaced" to support claims that Hansberry was directly involved in the movement for gay and lesbian civil equality. There's something of an inside joke tucked into Lorraine Hansberry's rarely-produced second Broadway play, which director Anne Kauffman has brought to life in a starry revival at BAM. 16 queer Black trailblazers who made history - NBC News - Breaking News Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. There are a million boys and girls A Raisin in the Sun, her most famous work, debuted on Broadway in 1959 and was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. Lorraine Hansberry: Lorraine Hansberry was a gifted playwright and creator of the award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun. She attended the University of Wisconsin in 194850 and then briefly the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University (Chicago). Lorraine Vivian Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun exploded onto American theater scene on March 11, 1959, with such force that it garnered for the then-unknown black female playwright the Drama Circle Critics Award for 1958-59 in spite of such luminous competition as Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth . Fragments of a Life: Lorraine Hansberry | Flowers For Socrates Louis Gossett, Jr., credited her with being a bit ahead of here time, but nonetheless, an effective female activist. On June 20, 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter, and political activist. On the eightieth anniversary of Hansberry's birth, Adjoa Andoh presented a BBC Radio 4 program entitled Young, Gifted and Black in tribute to her life. The moving story of the life of the woman behind A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage, by the New York Times bestselling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. She was the fourth child born to Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry in Chicago, IL. After two years, she left college for New York to serve as a writer and editor of Paul Robesons left-wing newspaper Freedom. Lorraine Hansberry: Biography, Facts & Plays | Study.com Hansberry was invited to meet Robert F. Kennedy (then U.S. Attorney General) in May, 1963 due to the work she had done as a Civil Rights activist, but declined the invitation. Being nothing short of brilliant in her approach, Hansberry wielded the full power of the pen in the punchy writing style that was and still is hard to ignore. In 2010, Hansberry was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Born Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, May 19, 1930, in Chicago, IL; died of cancer, January 12, 1965; daughter of Carl Augustus (a real estate entrepreneur) and Nannie (Perry) Hansberry; married Robert Nemiroff, June 20, 1953 (divorced March 10, 1964). Hansberry's most famous work, "A Raisin In The Sun" remains one of the best known plays ever written by a Black female playwright. The NYDCC was founded in 1935, and its first awards were given in 1936. Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart has had a vigorously successful run. A Raisin in the Sun Mass Market Paperbound Lorraine Hansberry. She underwent two operations, on June 24 and August 2. Hansberry and Nemiroff moved to Greenwich Village, the setting of her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. At Freedom, she worked with W. E. B. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. Tone Realistic. However, the writer adopted the initials of L.H. The Quiet Lesbian Biography of Lorraine Hansberry - Autostraddle Important Feminists you should know. A selection of her writings was produced on Broadway asTo Be Young, Gifted, and Black(1969; book 1970). Biography. She continued to write plays, short stories, and articles in addition to delivering speeches regarding race relations in the United States. . As Torchbearer Of Lorraine Hansberry's Rich Repertoire, She Is Helping Her mother, Nannie Perry, was a schoolteacher active in the Republican Party. . How could we improve it? He added minor changes to complete the play Les Blancs, which Julius Lester termed her best work, and he adapted many of her writings into the play To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which was the longest-running Off Broadway play of the 196869 season. Her promising career was cut short by her early death frompancreatic cancer. Bottom Row (left to right): T. S. Eliot; Lorraine Hansberry; Martin Buber; Otto Neurath. In 2004, A Raisin in the Sun was revived on Broadway in a production starring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald, and directed by Kenny Leon. Picture 1 of 1. Lorraine Hansberry's ex-husband and dear friend, the songwriter and poet Robert Nemiroff, became her literary executor after her death in 1965. The title of Hansberrys now-iconic play A Raisin In the Sun was inspired by Hughes poem Harlem. One could argue that the play illustrated the poems sentiment: Quotes from A Raisin in the Sun She was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Written and completed in 1957, A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, becoming the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. In the introduction of the live version, Simone explains the difficulty of losing a close friend and talented artist. The Washington, D.C., office searched her passport files "in an effort to obtain all available background material on the subject, any derogatory information contained therein, and a photograph and complete description," while officers in Milwaukee and Chicago examined her life history. Lorraine Hansberry was born in 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, into a family of civil rights activists. The award-winning playwright whose 90th birthday would have been this week first captured the public eye during the civil rights movement. Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart - PBS Both of these talented writers wanted to incorporate themes of race and sexual identity into their stage work, something that was considered quite radical at the time. Near the end of her life, she declared herself "committed [to] this homosexuality thing" and vowing to "create my lifenot just accept it". MLS # 3441616 She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play. Whether you want to learn the history of a city, or you simply need a recommendation for your next meal, Discover Walks Team offers an ever-growing travel encyclopaedia. In 1957, around the time she separated from Nemiroff, Hansberry contacted the Daughters of Bilitis, the San Francisco-based lesbian rights organization, contributing two letters to their magazine, The Ladder, both of which were published under her initials, first "L.H.N." Her civil rights work and writing career were cut short by her death from pancreatic cancer at age 34. Her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, continues to be her most influential piece and has managed to find new audiences through the decades, wining Tony Awards in 2004 and 2014 and also the title of Best Revival of a Play. Lorraine Hansberry: Radiant, Radical And More Than 'Raisin' For their magazine, the Ladder, Hansberry contributed articles which talked of feminism and homophobia, revealing her homosexual nature. Lorraine Hansberry - Biography and Facts . . Hansberry agreed to speak to the winners of a creative writing conference on May 1, 1964: "Though it is a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic to be young, gifted and black.". . Lincoln University's first-year female dormitory is named Lorraine Hansberry Hall. She was best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun, which highlighted the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. Biography & MemoirDisability Lorraine died at age thirty-four from pancreatic cancer. Louis Sachar Facts 8: Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Hansberry's funeral was held in Harlem on January 15, 1965. Lorraine surrounded herself with many people who were important to the civil rights movement, as well as people who held a measure of influence and celebrity status in the world. Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was born on this day, May 19. Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The original Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun was directed by Lloyd Richards and starred Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger, the head of the household. She was the daughter of a real estate entrepreneur, Carl Hansberry, and schoolteacher, Nannie Hansberry, as well as the niece of Pan-Africanist scholar and college professor Leo Hansberry. Date of first publication 1959. In 1950, Hansberry decided to leave Madison and pursue her career as a writer in New York City, where she attended The New School. How true, Clifford so sad that she left this world at age 34. She was the youngest of Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry's four children. At the same time, she said, "some of the first people who have died so far in this struggle have been white men.". Their white neighbors tried their best to make them move . It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the film version of 1961 received a special award at the Cannes festival. In fact, she is considered to be one of the greatest female, and African-American playwrights in all of the history of Broadway. Lorraine Hansberry's Gay Politics - The Root Thanks for reading! Lorraine Hansberry Biography at Black History Now . Publisher Random House. Colleagues of hers included famous actor Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. Hansberry was appalled by the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place while she was in high school. Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright whoseA Raisin in the Sun(1959) was the firstdramaby anAfrican American woman to be produced on Broadway. At first Sideways Stories from Wayside School was not a popular book in US. Lorraine Hansberry - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family - Sticky Facts In the same year, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window, was released on Broadway but was unable to become a major hit. Image by Friedman-Abeles from Wikimedia. Lorraine Hansberry's Remarkable Renaissance Is Timely, Exciting Not only did she have a play, but her drama, A. Lorraine was graceful, poised, and elegant (journalists and critics always also seemed to mention her petite frame or collegiate style), but could be icy and confrontational when the situation demandedand sometimes it was demanded. And I am glad she was not smiling at me. Hansberry, sadly passed away when she was in her 30s, but she left her mark on the world, and those who know its value are keeping it alive as a relevant piece of history that deserves a second look. Written when she was just twenty-eight, Lorraine Hansberry's landmark A Raisin in the Sun is listed . Lorraine Hansberry. Due to racial differences, Lorraine and her family faced racism when she was just eight. . In April 1960, she wrote a fascinating list of what she liked and hated. Gift of Kayla Deigh Owens, Playbill used by permission. A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, a Black family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. . James Baldwin believed "it is not at all farfetched to suspect that what she saw contributed to the strain which killed her, for the effort to which Lorraine was dedicated is more than enough to kill a man.". While working as a part-time waitress and cashier, Hansberry worked as the writer and associate editor of the black newspaper, Freedom, from 1950 to 1953 under Paul Robeson. 10 Interesting Louis Sachar Facts | My Interesting Facts I could think only of beauty, isolated and misunderstood but beauty still . At the newspaper, she worked as a "subscription clerk, receptionist, typist, and editorial assistant" besides writing news articles and editorials. Lorraine Hansberry was a history-making playwright and author who became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Hansberrys contributions to American theatre and literature have had a lasting impact, and her work continues to be studied and performed today. In 2013, more than twenty years after Nemiroff's death, the new executor released the restricted material to scholar Kevin J. Mumford. She worked on Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party presidential campaign in 1948, despite her mother's disapproval. In 2013, Nemiroff's daughter released the restricted materials to Kevin J. Mumford, who explored Hansberry's self-identification in subsequent work. Norma Brickner is a Journalism and Digital Media major at SUNY-New Paltz. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. She reached out to the world through her plays. Some books that he created include Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (1995), Sideways . The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . It is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes [in the parlance of the time], and life. And thats a fact! If the name Lorraine Hansberry doesnt ring a bell, we have some interesting information that may just give you an aha moment. Science & Medicine Top 10 Interesting Facts about Lorraine Hansberry Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. Thank you for this detailed and well-written article about an amazing young woman! The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honour in the United States, awarded by the President to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of the country, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavours. Politics & Current Events She was 34 years old when she died after a two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. Born on the 19 th of May in 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, Lorraine Hansberry was a bright daughter of Carl Augustus Hansberry, a political activist, while her mother, Nannie Louise, was a schoolteacher. You think you're accomplishing something in life until you realize that at age 29, playwright Lorraine Hansberry had a play produced on Broadway. Lorraine was inspired by her father and the play that she wrote may have been a little ahead of its time, but it won top prize from the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle, which was no small feat. Before her marriage, she had written in her personal notebooks about her attraction to women. Hansberry often explained these global struggles in terms of female participants. She is a graduate of Le Moyne College. Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright, writer and activist who lived from 1930 to 1965. . Hansberry's classmate Bob Teague remembered her as "the only girl I knew who could whip together a fresh picket sign with her own hands, at a moment's notice, for any cause or occasion".
