Lorraine Hansberry was the niece of Leo Hansberry, who was a Pan-Africanist scholar and college professor. In 2013, Hansberry was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, in recognition of her contributions to American culture and civil rights activism. Lorraines experiences growing up in this environment informed her writing, which often dealt with issues of race, class, and identity. In 1961, the play was made into a movie. The curtain rises on a dim, drab room. Here are five important facts about her that you most likely didnt know. This page was last modified on 24 February 2023, at 15:15. Breaking her familys tradition of enrolling in Southern Black colleges, Hansberry took admission in the University of Wisconsin in Madison, changing her major from painting to writing. Environment & Conservation Also in 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She was both a civil rights activist and a feminist deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the United States and her writing often dealt with issues of race and inequality. In fact, she is considered to be one of the greatest female, and African-American playwrights in all of the history of Broadway. Lorraines papers, including her letters and unpublished works, were private for years, with the public hearing only whispers or half-formed truths about some of the most significant aspects of Lorraines identity: her sexuality and her radical political leanings. 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. Lorraine died at age thirty-four from pancreatic cancer. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. The song has also famously been recorded by artists including Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. . Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, became the executor for several unfinished manuscripts. Lorraine Hansberry was born at Provident Hospital on the South Side of Chicago on May 19, 1930. B. Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 19, 1930. Later, an FBI reviewer of Raisin in the Sun highlighted its Pan-Africanist themes as "dangerous". She was also an active participant in the civil rights movement, and her writings and speeches inspired many people to take action against racial inequality and injustice. Her play premiered on Broadway in 1959 and made history by being the first Broadway production written by an African American woman. Kicks. She was raised in a strong family, the youngest of three children born to Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry. Hansberry and Nemiroff moved to Greenwich Village, the setting of her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Lorraine Hansberry, the author of A Raisin in the Sun, grew up in an activist family. Image by Columbia Pictures from Wikimedia. Lorraine used the theater to share her views. Check another American writer in Lorraine Hansberry facts. Picture 1 of 1. The success of the hit pop song "Cindy, Oh Cindy", co-authored by Nemiroff, enabled Hansberry to start writing full-time. A satire involving miscegenation, the $400,000 production was co-produced by her husband Robert Nemiroff. He then spent several years travelling and studying in Africa, including Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Hansberry was also a prominent civil rights activist, and her writing and activism helped to shape the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Biography & MemoirDisability Hansberry was associated with very important people. 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. September 27, 2022. Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930-January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist. Perry explains that though the term radical has negative associations, for Lorraine, American radicalism was both a passion and a commitment. Holiday House, 1998. She extended her hand. MLS # 3441616 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. 190-71 111th Ave , Saint Albans, NY 11412 is a single-family home listed for-sale at $799,000. W.E.B. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. He was known as a race man who sought to make the world a better place for African Americans. Politics & Current Events Unfortunately, Lorraine Hansberry passed away in 1965, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom was not established until 1969. The play has also been adapted into a film and has become a classic of American literature and theatre. 519 (1934), had been similar to his situation. Her civil rights work and writing career were cut short by her death from pancreatic cancer at age 34. She was born to Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nonnie Louise. 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. On September 18, 2018, the biography Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, written by scholar Imani Perry, was published by Beacon Press. The title of the song refers to the title of Hansberry's autobiography, which Hansberry first coined when speaking 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." Before her marriage, she had written in her personal notebooks about her attraction to women. How would you rate this article? 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. 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. She admonished the Kennedy administration to be more active in addressing the problem of segregation in the community. 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. In doing so, he blocked access to all materials related to Hansberry's lesbianism, meaning that no scholars or biographers had access for more than 50 years. Hansberry's. . 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. Who are young, gifted and black Lorraine Hansberry was deeply influenced by her uncles activism and scholarship, and her work often reflected her own commitment to social justice and civil rights for African Americans. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (2004, Mass Market, Reprint) $0.99 + $5.65 shipping. Also in 1963, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She got her start in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina, where she played gospel hymns and classical music at Old St. Luke's CME, the church where her mother ministered. 236 pp. Date of first performance 1959. 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. Colleagues of hers included famous actor Sydney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34. Mumford stated that Hansberry's lesbianism caused her to feel isolated while A Raisin in the Sun catapulted her to fame; still, while "her impulse to cover evidence of her lesbian desires sprang from other anxieties of respectability and conventions of marriage, Hansberry was well on her way to coming out." The group of 1960's would-be idealists, iconoclasts and intellectuals who hang out in the Greenwich Village apartment of Sidney and Iris Brustein (Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan) include a painter, I could think only of beauty, isolated and misunderstood but beauty still . It was a critical time in the history of the civil rights movement. Copyright 2023 All Rights ReservedPrivacy Policy, Film & Stage Adaptations of Classic Novels, The first Black woman to have a play staged on Broadway, In 1969, four years after Lorraine Hansberrys death, Nina Simone wrote, Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of, She addressed social issues in her writings. Baldwin remembers: Her face changed and changed, the way Sojourner Truth's face must have changed and changed . While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Open your heart to what I mean Hansberry received many awards for her work, including a New York Critics' Circle Award, an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. Fact 1: The one fact you might already know! Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The awards are considered one of the most prestigious in American theatre and winners are often considered to be among the best productions of the year. Full title A Raisin in the Sun. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In 2013, Hansberry was also inducted into the Legacy Walk, making her the first Chicago-native to receive the honour, along with a position in the American Theatre Hall of Fame in the same year. This week, Basic Black discusses legendary playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote 'A Raisin in the Sun.' Panelists: Lisa Simmons, director of the Roxbury I. AboutPressCopyrightContact. Hansberry's most famous work, "A Raisin In The Sun" remains one of the best known plays ever written by a Black female playwright. 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). Corrections? Hansberrys next play, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window, a drama of political questioning and affirmation set in Greenwich Village, New York City, where she had long made her home, had only a modest run on Broadway in 1964. In one of her stories, The Anticipation of Eve, Lorraine describes the moment the protagonist Rita is about to see her lover Eve with lush, tender language: I could think only of flowers growing lovely and wild somewhere by the highways, of every lovely melody I had ever heard. Some books that he created include Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (1995), Sideways . Hansberry joined CORE in the late 1950s and became involved in various civil rights campaigns, including the fight against housing discrimination in Chicago. She is buried at Asbury United Methodist Church Cemetery in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. 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.. In 2013, more than twenty years after Nemiroff's death, the new executor released the restricted material to scholar Kevin J. Mumford. Before her death, she built a circle of gay and lesbian friends, took several lovers, vacationed in Provincetown (where she enjoyed, in her words, "a gathering of the clan"), and subscribed to several homophile magazines. Top 10 Things to do Around the Eiffel Tower, 10 Things to Do in Paris on Christmas Day (2022), 10 Things to Do in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. She later joined Englewood High School. Carl Hansberry was also a supporter of the Urban League and NAACP in Chicago. The granddaughter of a slave and the niece of a prominent African-American professor, Hansberry grew up with a keen awareness of African-American history and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1930. Queer Perspectives It is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes [in the parlance of the time], and life. The play was a critical and commercial success. Learn more about Lorraine Hansberry In 2017, Hansberry was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. The major theme throughout playwright Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is how racism impacts daily life for this multi-generational family, not only in relations between black and. 2. 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. How could we improve it? Discover the life of Lorraine Hansberry, who reported on civil rights for Paul Robeson's newspaper Freedom and later penned "A Raisin in the Sun". . Patricia and Fredrick McKissack wrote a children's biography of Hansberry, Young, Black, and Determined, in 1998. Hansberry herself led an extraordinary life, which is profiled in the . She is best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. To Be Young, Gifted and Black Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggles for liberation and their impact on the world. Setting (time) Between 1945 and 1959 Setting (place) The South Side of Chicago Protagonist Walter Lee Younger Sadly, she passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965. . 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). Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest of four children born to Carl Augustus Hansberry, a successful real-estate broker and Nannie Louise (born Perry), a driving school teacher and ward committeewoman. 10 Best Books to Read About African History. . American Society Best known for her plays, Hansberry was the first black woman to write a Broadway drama; A Raisin in the . Three years later, Hansberry devoted all her attention towards writing joining the Daughters of Bilitis the year after. She was passionate about the causes and people that she stood in support of. 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 . She used her writing to redefine difference. And I am glad she was not smiling at me. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison but left before completing her degree to pursue a career as a writer. In 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced but continued to work together. Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a. The award-winning playwright whose 90th birthday would have been this week first captured the public eye during the civil rights movement. 1. . . 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. The award is given for excellence in the field of theatre, with categories including Best Play, Best Musical, Best Foreign Play, and Best Revival. Progressive Education In 1938, the family moved to a white neighborhood and was violently attacked by its inhabitants but the former refused to vacate the area until . In 1961, Hansberry was set to replace Vinnette Carroll as the director of the musical Kicks and Co, after its try-out at Chicago's McCormick Place. . It was at one of these demonstrations that Hansberry met her husband and closest friend, Robert Nemiroff. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of San Francisco, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in her honor. She was the youngest of Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry's four children. Goodbye, Mr. Attorney General, she said, and turned and walked out of the room.