With plays such as “A Raisin in the Sun”, “ To Be Young, Gifted and Black” and “ The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window “, it is hard to differentiate the author from her plays. Lorraine Hansberry was just as successful during the course of her life as she was a playwright. She was an advocate for integration, a promoter for the lesbian liberation movement, a painter, and a litigant in the United States Supreme Court case, Hansberry v. Lee.
Born on May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois as the youngest daughter of a well-known real estate broker by the name of Carlos Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry and her family was subjected to racial discrimination when they moved to an all-white neighborhood. While she attended a white public school, Hansberry's father was engaged in a legal battle against a racially restrictive rule that prohibited African Americans from buying home in the area. The legal brawl over her family residency in the white neighborhood led to the historic Supreme Court case of Hansberry versus Lee in which the Hansberry family won. Though victors in the case, Lorraine Hansberry quoted that her family was subjected to “a hellishly hostile white neighborhood.” Due to this experience, Lorraine Hansberry was inspired to write her electrifying play, “A Raisin in the Sun”.
After writing “A Raisin in the Sun”, Hansberry was considered the foremother of African American drama. Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American woman to feature a play on Broadway and to receive the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Her plays, “ The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window “, and “ To Be Young, Gifted and Black” only encouraged her fans of her role in American society. Hansberry contributed to the understanding of abortions, discrimination and Africa. As successful as Hansberry was as a playwright, her marriage was not. After eleven years of marriage, Lorraine Hansberry divorced her husband, Robert Nemiroff in the year 1964.
One year later, Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at the age of thirty-four. Even though Hansberry's promising career was cut short by her death, memories of her still lives on. In San Francisco, the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, which specializes in revivals of African American theater and original staging, is named in honor of her. A civil rights themed song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” is written by her close friend, Nina Simone to commemorate her unfinished play. And her play is watched by millions of people worldwide each day. Lorraine Hansberry is gone but not forgotten.
