Lorraine Hansberry Pics

Lorraine

Hansberry

19 May 1930

Brown - Dark

Black

Chicago, IL

Taurus

12 January 1965

New York, NY

pancreatic cancer at the age of 34

Black

Play

American

Female

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois, Hansberry was the youngest of four children of Carl A. Hansberry (a prominent real estate broker) and Nanny Perry Hansberry. She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood. The family then moved into an all-white neighborhood, where they faced racial discrimination. Hansberry attended a predominantly white public school while her parents fought against segregation. Hansberry`s father engaged in a legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that attempted to prohibit African-American families from buying homes in the area. The legal struggle over their move led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940). Though victors in the Supreme Court, Hansberry`s family was subjected to what Hansberry would later describe as a "hellishly hostile white neighborhood." This experience later inspired her to write her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun The Sign in Sidney Brustein`s Window ran for 99 performances on Broadway[1] and closed the night she died. Her ex-husband Nemiroff became the literary executor for several of her unfinished works. Notably, 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 1968-1969 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. She left behind an unfinished novel and three unfinished plays, the content matter dealing with many types of emotions After her success with A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry became the foremother of African-American drama. She also contributed to the understanding of abortions, discrimination, and Africa. In San Francisco, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in honor of her. Singer and pianist Nina Simone, who was a close friend of Hansberry, used the title of her unfinished play to write a civil rights-themed song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" together with Weldon Irvine. The single reached the top 10 of the R&B charts.[2] A studio recording by Simone was released as a single and the first live recording on October 26, 1969 was captured on Black Gold (1970).

Betsy Ross Elementary, IL, Englewood Elementary, IL

University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, Roosevelt University, New School for Social Research, W.E.B. DuBois at the Jefferson School for Social Sciences, NY

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry

1

Writer

1

Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an African American playwright and author of political speeches, letters, and essays. Her best known work, A Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by her family's legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago during her childhood.

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