We may all come from different walks of life but we have one common passion - learning through travel. 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. It was with those friends and Nemiroff that she kept a secret about the pancreatic cancer that would eventually take her life on January 12, 1965, at age 34. Hansberry was particularly interested in the intersections between race, class, and gender, and she believed that these issues were all interconnected. The production also led Hansberry to become the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics Circle Award. . 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 1969, Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry called "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." Fact 7: Nina Simones song To Be Young, Gifted and Black was written in memory of her close friend Lorraine. He gathered her unpublished writings and first adapted them into a stage play, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which ran off Broadway from 1968 to 1969. After moving to New York City, she held various minor jobs and studied at theNew School for Social Researchwhile refining her writing skills. 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. Lorraine Hansberry, likely at a welcoming event for the African-American Students Foundation in 1959. 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. W.E.B. Also in 1963, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. . 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. She was brought up alongside three siblings. Here are five important facts about her that you most likely didnt know. :). Discuss these differences and how they conflict with one another. On June 20, 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter, and political activist. Commissioned by NBC in 1960 to create a television program about slavery, Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd. Three years later, Hansberry devoted all her attention towards writing joining the Daughters of Bilitis the year after. Hansberry was born into a Black family and grew up when the civil rights movement could use all the voices it could get. 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. Carl Hansberry was also a supporter of the Urban League and NAACP in Chicago. . Both Hansberry's were active in the Chicago Republican Party. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940), to which the playwright Lorraine Hansberry's father was a party, when he fought to have his day in court despite the fact that a previous class action about racially motivated restrictive covenants, Burke v. Kleiman, 277 Ill. App. Her play premiered on Broadway in 1959 and made history by being the first Broadway production written by an African American woman. Fact 9: This isnt a major life milestone of Lorraines, but its too fascinating not to include it!) The song has also famously been recorded by artists including Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award making her the first African-American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. Feminism & Gender She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. She also enjoys creative writing, content writing on nearly any topic, because as a lifelong learner, she loves research. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only 34 years old. Du Bois, the Civil Rights activist, author, sociologist, and historian, and Paul Robeson, the musician and actor, were friends of the Hansberry family. As a playwright. 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. Progressive Education Even though her disease brought her career to an abrupt halt, Lorraine Hansberry continues to be remembered through the paintings and writings which she worked on in the early years of her career. Time and place written 1950s, New York. She was raised in a strong family, the youngest of three children born to Nannie Perry Hansberry and Carl Augustus Hansberry. 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. The youngest of four siblings, she was seven years younger than Mamie, her . Image by Friedman-Abeles from Wikimedia. For their magazine, the Ladder, Hansberry contributed articles which talked of feminism and homophobia, revealing her homosexual nature. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lorraine-Hansberry, BlackHistoryNow - Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Lorraine Hansberry - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). It ran for 101 performances on Broadway and closed the night she died. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. She tries to rouse her sleeping child and husband, calling out: "Get up!". The sq. Imani Perrys Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry is a watershed biography of the award-winning playwright, activist, and artist Lorraine Hansberry. Hansberrys work as a writer and activist was groundbreaking in its exploration of the experiences of African American women. It was at one of these demonstrations that Hansberry met her husband and closest friend, Robert Nemiroff. She was an anti-colonialist before independence had been won in Africa and the Caribbean.. Best known for her plays, Hansberry was the first black woman to write a Broadway drama; A Raisin in the . In 1958 she raised funds to produce her play A Raisin in the Sun, which opened in March 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, meeting with great success. This experience is reflected in Raisin in how unwelcoming the white community was to the Younger family in Clybourne Park. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. Required fields are marked *. . Hansberrys uncle, William Leo Hansberry, founded the Howard University African Civilization section of the history department, her cousin Shauneille Perry is an actress and playwright, and her younger relatives, Taye Hansberry is an actress and Aldridge Hansberry is a composer and flutist. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. In response to the independence of Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, Hansberry wrote: "The promise of the future of Ghana is that of all the colored peoples of the world; it is the promise of freedom. Du Bois, whose office was in the same building, and other Black Pan-Africanists. Fact 1: The one fact you might already know! Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was born on this day, May 19. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. Perry truly brings Lorraine to life in this intimate book. In her award-winning Hansberry biography Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Imani Perry writes that in his "gorgeous" images, "Attie captured her intellectual confidence, armour, and remarkable beauty.". . Sadly, she passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965. [1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. . . 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. 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. All rights reserved, Playbill Inc. National Museum of African American History & Culture. 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. Download Our Free Black Liberation eBook Bundle! She expressed a desire for a future in which "Nobody fights. Fact 2: Lorraine was raised in the South Side of Chicago. Lorraine identified as an American radical and believed that extreme change was necessary to fight against racism and injustice internationally. In 1959, Hansberry commented that women who are "twice oppressed" may become "twice militant". This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger's life insurance policy. 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. Her other works include the plays The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window and Les Blancs, as well as several essays and articles on civil rights and social justice issues. In the same year, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, was released on Broadway but was unable to become a major hit. . Their goal is to create a space where the entire community can be enriched by the voices of professional black artists, reflecting autonomous concerns, investigations, dreams, and artistic expression. Tags: american birth day 19 birth month may birth year 1930 death day 12 death month january death year 1965 playwright. She admonished the Kennedy administration to be more active in addressing the problem of segregation in the community. She was later quoted as saying that American racism helped kill him.. In fact, she is considered to be one of the greatest female, and African-American playwrights in all of the history of Broadway. Activism Born in 1930, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was the youngest of Carl and Nannie Hansberry's four children. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. Happy travels! The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Many icons of the early African American Civil Rights Movement, e.g., Langston Hughes, visited the Hansberry home Queer Perspectives Lorraines extraordinary life has often been reduced to this one fact in classroomsif she is taught at all. She even wrote anonymous letters to the publication alluding to her own lesbian relationships. Lorraine used the theater to share her views. Hansberry was born May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of four children. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" . The play was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun and was a great success at the Ethel Ballymore Theatre, having a total of 530 performances. The show ran for more than two years and won two Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Biography. Lorraine Hansberry was an avid civil rights activist because she understood clearly, that people need a champion in this life. 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. With the help of the NAACP, he eventually won the right to stay, but never recovered from the emotional stress of their legal battles ("Lorraine Hansberry";Hansberry 21). . Genre Realist drama. Due to racial differences, Lorraine and her family faced racism when she was just eight. Beacon Press. Lorraines goal was to change society for the better. 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. 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. She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play. 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. Lorraines experiences growing up in this environment informed her writing, which often dealt with issues of race, class, and identity. The success of the hit pop song "Cindy, Oh Cindy", co-authored by Nemiroff, enabled Hansberry to start writing full-time. Lorraine Hansberry was born at Provident Hospital on the South Side of Chicago on May 19, 1930. A documentary has been made about her writing, Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain is so taken with Lorraines work that she put together a powerful documentary so people would know who she was and what she stood for. . Hansberry joined CORE in the late 1950s and became involved in various civil rights campaigns, including the fight against housing discrimination in Chicago. The award is given for excellence in the field of theatre, with categories including Best Play, Best Musical, Best Foreign Play, and Best Revival. Hansberry worked on not only the US civil rights movement, but also global struggles against colonialism and imperialism. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 at the beginning of the Great Depression. . Du Bois , poet Langston Hughes, singer, actor, and political activist Paul Robeson, musician Duke Ellington, and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens. Martin Luther King, Jr.s Radical Vision of Replacing Residential Caste with Communities of Love and Justice, Black Resistance Knows No Bounds in History: A Reading List, Black Poet Listening: Lessons in Making Poetry a Life, Beacon Behind the Books: Meet Catherine Tung, Editor, Martin Luther King, Jr.s Palm Sunday Sermon Celebrating the Life of Gandhi, The Scourge of the January 6 US Capitol Attack: A Citizens Reading List. Previously, she worked as an intern at the UN Refugee Agency and Harvard Common Press. 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." 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). 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 ordered to do so by the Supreme Court where the case was addressed as Hansberry v. Lee. She wrote in support of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, criticizing the mainstream press for its biased coverage. 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. Lorraine Hansberry was the niece of Leo Hansberry, who was a Pan-Africanist scholar and college professor. Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 19, 1930. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the late 1940s, but she left before completing her degree. Lorraine Hansberry attended theUniversity of Wisconsinin 194850 and then briefly the School of theArt Institute of ChicagoandRoosevelt University(Chicago). Lorraine Hansberry (19301965) was a playwright, writer, and activist. Lorraine Hansberry has many notable relatives including director and playwright Shauneille Perry, whose eldest child is named after her. 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 Du Bois and Paul Robeson. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The FBI began surveillance of Hansberry when she prepared to go to the Montevideo peace conference. . Corrections? Date of first performance 1959. It is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes [in the parlance of the time], and life. Copyright 2016 FamousAfricanAmericans.org, Museum Dedicated to African American History and Culture is Set to Open in 2016, Scholarships for African Americans Black Scholarships, Top 10 Most Famous Black Actors of All Time. Bella Sanchez is a recent graduate from Boston University, and the marketing intern for Beacon Press. "An Interview with Lorraine . 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. Despite not finishing college, Hansberry went on to achieve great success as a playwright and activist. Learn more about Lorraine Hansberry 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. 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. Hansberry was the godmother to Nina Simone's daughter Lisa. It was, in fact, a requirement for human decency (150). Hansberry received many awards for her work, including a New York Critics' Circle Award, an award at the Cannes Film Festival. In college, she took classes in stage design and sculpture, and turned her dorm room into an art studio. . Her experiences with discrimination and activism served as inspiration for her most famous work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, . Lorraine Hansberry was a U.S. writer in the mid-1900s. Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965, aged 34. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the film version of 1961 received a special award at the Cannes festival. At the same time, she said, "some of the first people who have died so far in this struggle have been white men.". 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 graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary in 1944 and from Englewood High School in 1948. He looked insulted--seemed to feel that he had been wasting his time . McKissack, Patricia C. and Fredrick L. Young, Black and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry. Fifteen years before Lorraine was unsealed, Harris meticulously and accurately charted Hansberry's queer life; she did not rely on institutions, but New York City dykes. Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a family that was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. She attended the University of WisconsinMadison, where she immediately became politically active with the Communist Party USA and integrated a dormitory. To Be Young, Gifted and Black Upon his ex-wife's death, Robert Nemiroff donated all of Hansberry's personal and professional effects to the New York Public Library. Lorraine Hansberry is best known as the playwright of A Raisin In The Sun, the groundbreaking play about a working class African-American family on the South Side of Chicago that illustrates how the American Dream is limited for Black Americans.The play is widely hailed as one of the greatest-ever achievements in theater. ", James Baldwin described Hansberry's 1963 meeting with Robert F. Kennedy, in which Hansberry asked for a "moral commitment" on civil rights from Kennedy. She wrote about her love for women and her struggles with her sexuality in personal papers published posthumously. Lorraine died at age thirty-four from pancreatic cancer. Written by Oscar Brown, Jr., the show featured an interracial cast including Lonnie Sattin, Nichelle Nichols, Vi Velasco, Al Freeman, Jr., Zabeth Wilde, and Burgess Meredith in the title role of Mr. Hansberry wrote two screenplays of Raisin, both of which were rejected as controversial by Columbia Pictures. Lorraine Hansberry, the author of A Raisin in the Sun, grew up in an activist family. In April 1959, as a sign of her sudden fame just one month after A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway, photographer David Attie did an extensive photo-shoot of Hansberry for Vogue magazine, in the apartment at 337 Bleecker Street where she had written Raisin, which produced many of the best-known images of her today. In 1951, Hansberry joined the staff of the black newspaper Freedom, edited by Louis E. Burnham and published by Paul Robeson. 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. . Lorraine Hansberry was a history-making playwright and author who became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. She attended the University of Wisconsin in 194850 and then briefly the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University (Chicago). The single reached the top 10 of the R&B charts. . I am in Houston and may go see Clybourne Park at the Midtown A&T Center before I leave town next week. Hansberry was the daughter of parents who were also outspoken advocates for civil rights. $26.95. In January 2018, the PBS series American Masters released a new documentary, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, directed by Tracy Heather Strain. Hansberrys contributions to American theatre and literature have had a lasting impact, and her work continues to be studied and performed today. A penetrating psychological study of the personalities and emotional conflicts within a working-class black family in Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun was directed by actor Lloyd Richards, the first African American to direct a play on Broadway since 1907. She continued to write plays, short stories, and articles in addition to delivering speeches regarding race relations in the United States. Du Bois. Tell us what's wrong with this post? She wrote about her experiences as a lesbian in her unpublished journals and letters. She moved to Harlem in 1951 and became involved in activist struggles such as the fight against evictions. In 1973, a musical based on A Raisin in the Sun, entitled Raisin, opened on Broadway, with music by Judd Woldin, lyrics by Robert Brittan, and a book by Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg. Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, became the executor for several unfinished manuscripts. Her most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, is an exploration of the challenges faced by a black family in Chicago as they struggle to achieve the American Dream in the face of systemic racism and poverty. 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 However, the writer adopted the initials of L.H. After moving to New York City, she held various minor jobs and studied at the New School for Social Research while refining her writing skills. Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. Fact 8: Though she married a man, Lorraine identified as a lesbian. Lorraine's uncle, William Leo Hansberry, taught African history at Howard University. Baldwin remembers: Her face changed and changed, the way Sojourner Truth's face must have changed and changed . In 1959 her play A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway, an important theater district in New York City. Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was a. Setting (time) Between 1945 and 1959 Setting (place) The South Side of Chicago Protagonist Walter Lee Younger Omissions? In 1999 Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. . Heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it has since closed. Hansberrys work broke barriers and paved the way for more diverse voices to be heard on the Broadway stage. James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberrys biography, Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life. She was also the youngest playwright and the first Black winner of the prestigious Drama Critics Circle Awardfor Best Play. Lorraine was taught: "Above all, there were two things which were never to be betrayed: the family and the race.". Her father, Carl Hansberry was an activist who fought against racial discrimination in housing. Lorraine Hansberry was one of the most brilliant minds to pass through the American theater, a model of that virtually extinct species known as the artist-activist . . Lorraine Hansberry became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and joined people like Lena Horne and James Baldwin to test Robert Kennedy's position on civil rights. As the first-ever black woman to author a play performed on. Check another American writer in Lorraine Hansberry facts. And I am glad she was not smiling at me. Later, Hansberry would maintain her own close bonds with Du Bois, Robeson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin. Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. The presiding minister, Eugene Callender, recited a message from Baldwin, and also a message from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that read: "Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn."
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