Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (1930 - 1965)

Born 19 May 1930 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Barron Nemiroff — married 19 Jun 1953 (to 1962) in Cook, Illinois, United States

Died 12 Jan 1965 at age 34 in New York City, New York, United States

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Biography

Lorraine Hansberry is Notable.

Playwright and author Lorraine Hansberry, the first African American female author to have a play performed on Broadway, was most famous for her 1959 play, A Raisin In the Sun. Her early success gave her a means to speak out on civil rights.^[1]

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19th 1930, in Chicago, on the city's South Side, the youngest of four children. Her father was Carl Augustus Hansberry, a Chicago real estate broker; her mother was Nannie Louise Perry, a driving school instructor and ward committeewoman.^[1][2][3]

Hansberry's early life was rich in encounters. Her parents' distinguished guests -- Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, among others -- no doubt were philosophical, spiritual and political influences.^[3]

"In addition to these social networks, her uncle, William Leo Hansberry, a pioneering professor of African history at Howard University, passed through the Chicago area often and brought young, bright students from the African continent with him. The rich cultural and political education she garnered from these experiences left her with an intellectual curiosity that could not be satisfied with college study alone."^[4]

When she was eight years old, her father bought a house in a white neighborhood and spent many long years defending -- with the support of the NAACP -- the family's right to a home in the area. Mr. Hansberry fought against Chicago's restrictive covenants, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court (Hansberry v Lee), where his right to contest in court was upheld.^[5][6] Around 1946 Carl Hansberry made a trip to Mexico, with the idea of settling his family there, but he died during that trip of a cerebral hemorrhage.^[7][8]

Education
Hansberry studied for a while at the Chicago Art Institute, thinking she would become a painter, worked a bit with a small theater group in Chicago, and briefly attended the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. After spending two years at the University of Wisconsin, she decided in 1950 to move to New York, where she studied African history at the Jefferson School of Social Science with W.E.B. DuBois as professor, and began writing for a newspaper founded by Paul Robeson, called Freedom (1951-1955).^[9][10] She also earned a living as waitress or cashier.^[11] As a writer engaged in social causes she was inspired to contribute progressive texts for theater.^[4]

Personal Life
It is reported that Hansberry met her husband, Robert Nemiroff, a notable music publisher and songwriter, on a picket line, and that they spent the night before their wedding (June 20th 1953) protesting the execution of the Rosenbergs.^[12] She and her husband divorced in 1964, but maintained a friendly working relationship.^[1][13]

Writing was a way for Hansberry to explore personal thoughts and feelings, and since some of those feelings were at the time publicly unacceptable, she voiced them at first by signing with her initials only. In letters addressed to the lesbian publication The Ladder in 1957, Lorraine Hansberry made it clear she felt she was a lesbian.^[14][1]

Playwright & spokeswoman
Lorraine Hansberry completed her first play, originally titled The Crystal Stair in 1957. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," inspired her to re-title it A Raisin in the Sun.^[12][11]

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—and then run?^[15]

The story, situated in a fictional Chicago neighborhood of the 1950s, involves an African-American family as they clash over how to best use money inherited from the recently deceased head of household. A decision is made to buy a home in a white neighborhood -- causing a stir among the neighbors. The story clearly draws on Hansberry's experiences as a child in Chicago, where her father had purchased a house in a hostile white neighborhood, Washington Park. Lorraine Hansberry said of that experience, "My memories of this correct way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school." ^[1][5]

February, 1959. Chicagoans were delighted to have A Raisin in the Sun premiere in their town at the Blackstone Theater, with renowned actor Sidney Poitier in the leading role. Broadway was the center of the universe for American theater, hence well-known actors or actresses were rarely enticed to go "on the road" unless that meant "not far from New York." No major play had opened in the Windy City since Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie in 1944.^[16] As Chicago theater critic Claudia Cassidy put it, "New York has a theater shortage, Chicago a play shortage. This time it works to our advantage."^[15]

In New York the play opened March 11th 1959, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, and ran for at least 15 months.^[5]

At age 29, Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play, and the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Raisin was also nominated for four Tony Awards.^[5][1] Shortly after the New York opening, Hansberry sold the screenplay to Columbia for three hundred thousand dollars.^[17] The 1961 screen version was nominated for Golden Globe Awards and received the Gary Cooper Award at the Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

In 1963 she joined a group of prominent artists and intellectuals brought together by author James Baldwin to meet with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and discuss racial violence.^[18]

I knew I could not call her.
Our car drove on; we passed her.
And then we heard the thunder.^[19]

Hansberry graciously granted interviews with the press, always seeking to put into words the painful experience of being Black in America. She also wrote essays published in Ebony, The Village Voice (among others) and spoke publicly on the need for African-Americans to struggle for their rights.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Early Death
Lorraine Hansberry succumbed to cancer in January 1965 at University Hospital in New York City.^[13] She was buried at Bethel Cemetery, Croton-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York, USA.^[24]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Wikipedia contributors, "Lorraine Hansberry," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lorraine_Hansberry&oldid=1180528349 (accessed October 27, 2023).
2. ↑ "Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1940," database, FamilySearch  (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2S8-76KT : 18 May 2016), Loraine Hansberry, 19 May 1930; Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, reference/certificate 21383, Cook County Clerk, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} "Lorraine Hansberry Biography" published online by Chicago Public Library, (https://www.chipublib.org/lorraine-hansberry-biography/: accessed 21 May 2019), citing McKissack, Patricia C. and Fredrick L. Young, "Black and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry," (Holiday House, 1998), and Wilkerson, Margaret B. “Lorraine Hansberry.” African American Writers 2. 2001.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Welch, "Spokesman of the Oppressed?" 9:4, page 305-306; (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10999940701703752: 21 May 2019).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} Wikipedia contributors, "A Raisin in the Sun," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Raisin_in_the_Sun&oldid=1169052845 (accessed October 28, 2023).
6. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Hansberry v. Lee," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hansberry_v._Lee&oldid=1178044410 (accessed October 28, 2023).
7. ↑ Anna Arnold Hedgman, "Close-Up of Lorraine Hansberry," The New York Age, (12 Sep 1959) p. 4. Online at newspapers.com.
8. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Carl Augustus Hansberry," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Augustus_Hansberry&oldid=1169748252 (accessed October 28, 2023).
9. ↑ "Profiles of Newsmakers," The Racine Journal, (Racine, Wisconsin, 12 April 1959) p. 15. Online at newspapers.com.
10. ↑ NYU Libraries website, online publication. (http://dlib.nyu.edu/freedom/: accessed 21 May 2019)
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} "Lorraine Hansberry Biography," Biography.com editors, Biography.com website (https://www.biography.com/writer/lorraine-hansberry: accessed 4 June 2019) Published by A&E Television Networks; last updated April 16, 2019; Originally published April 2, 2014.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Jone Johnson Lewis, Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Creator of "Raisin in the Sun, citing Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. Young, Black and Determined: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, (Holiday House, 1998) (https://www.thoughtco.com/lorraine-hansberry-biography-3528287: accessed 4 June 2019).
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} "Obituary for Lorraine Hansberry (Aged 34)", The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana, (Wed) 13 January 1965, p. 31, Newspapers Clip: 106891352
14. ↑ American Literature in Transition, Steve Belleto, ed., (Lafayette College, Cambridge University Press, 2018) p. 176; online at Google, (https://books.google.fr/books?id=dc9CDwAAQBAJ&pg: retrieved 9 April 2020)
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} Claudia Cassidy, "On the Aisle: Sidney Poitier in New Play Set Off by a Langston Hughes Poem," (Chicago Sunday Tribune, February 8, 1959) pp. 1-2. Online at newspaper.com.
16. ↑ "A Chicago Premiere," Freeport Journal-Standard, (Freeport, Illinois; 18 Feb 1959) p. 1; Online at newspaper.com; accessed 9 Dec 2019.
17. ↑ Herb Lyon, "Tower Ticker," The Chicago Tribune, (April 2 1959) p. 26. Online at newspapers.com.
18. ↑ Rebeccah Welch (2007) "Spokesman of the Oppressed? Lorraine Hansberry at Work: The Challenge of Radical Politics in the Postwar Era," Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, 9:4, 302-319; (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10999940701703752: 21 May 2019), citing "Robert Kennedy Consults Negroes Here About North," New York Times, May 25, 1963; ‘‘Robert Kennedy Fails to Sway Negroes at Secret Talks Here,’’ New York Times, May 26, 1963; ‘‘Robert Kennedy Confers Today with Theater Men on Race Issue,’’ New York Times, May 27, 1963.
19. ↑ Imani Perry, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon Press, 2018), (https://www.salon.com/2018/12/09/lorraine-hansberry-american-radical/: accessed 11 Dec 2019)
20. ↑ Lisbeth Lipari, "Queering the borders: Lorraine Hansberry's Letters to The Ladder," p. 4; Paper presented in 2003. (https://web.archive.org/web/20200129090915/http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/1/2/1/0/pages112109/p112109-4.php).
21. ↑ 'Raisin' Author Tells How Her Background Influenced The Play
22. ↑ Profiles of Newsmakers: Lorraine Hansberry
23. ↑ Ex-U.W. Co-ed Becomes 'The Toast of New York'
24. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/443 : accessed 10 December 2019), memorial page for Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (19 May 1930–12 Jan 1965), Find A Grave Memorial no. 443, citing Bethel Cemetery, Croton-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave.

• Text Available online (https://docplayer.net/15631-Lorrainehansberry-a-raisinin-the-sun-the-action-of-the-playis-set-inchicago-ssouthside-sometime-between-world-war-ii-and-thepresent.html: 21 May 2019).
• "The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town," (Modern Library Paperbacks), pp. 191-194; by E.B. White, James Thurber, John Updike, published by Random House (2007). Online at (https://books.google.fr/books?id=2pw3MFQEyjcC&pg: accessed 19 July 2020).
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/
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