Biography: Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry was a small, shy, and determined woman. People described her as funny, passionate, strong-willed, and intellectual. She was a writer, an artist, and a rebel. She had a short but powerful life.

Hansberry was born in Southside Chicago, a neighborhood in segregated Chicago where almost all of the residents were African American. Her neighborhood was important to her identity. The houses and apartments were very close together. It was a crowded neighborhood. Many people were very poor. She loved Southside Chicago.

She was born on May 19, 1930. Her father was named Carl Hansberry. Her mother was named Nannie Perry. Hansberry was the youngest child in her family. She had three older siblings. She didn’t have a sibling who was close in age (the next oldest sibling was seven years older than her). Hansberry learned how to play alone. She felt like her family was not loving. They were formal and cold. She often felt very lonely.

Hansberry’s family did not always live in Chicago. Lorraine’s father, Carl, was a businessman. His family moved to Chicago during the ‘Great Migration,’ a movement of African Americans from the South to Northern cities. Her mother, Nannie, was from Tennessee. Lorraine’s grandmother was born into slavery.

In Chicago, Hansberry’s family was middle-class. They had plenty of money. Some of her neighbors called her a ‘rich girl,’ but Hansberry didn’t feel rich. She did not like having more money than her neighbors.

One Christmas, Hanberry’s mother gave her a gift. It was a beautiful, white fur coat. It was very expensive. Hansberry didn’t like the coat. She felt like an ugly rabbit. But her mother put the coat on her. Hansberry went to Kindergarten in the coat one day. The other children saw her. They saw the expensive coat, and they teased and attacked her. It was the Great Depression, and many of Hansberry’s classmates were very poor. They didn’t like to see a ‘rich girl.’

Hansberry was fascinated by these children. She didn’t want to spend time with other middle-class children. She wanted to be friends with poor children. She became good friends with them. These kids were sometimes called ‘latch-key kids’ because they wore a house-key around their necks. Their parents worked all day, so they had a key to go into their own houses after school, alone. Hansberry liked these kids because she thought that they were like grown-ups. They were mature and responsible. They were passionate and rebellious. Hansberry wanted to be a rebel, even when she was very young.

Hansberry’s family thought and talked about politics often. Hansberry’s father, Carl Hansberry, was famous in Chicago and in the United States because of a Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court is the highest level of court in the United States. It is in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court decides whether a law is constitutional or unconstitutional. The case was called Hansberry v. Lee and it was about housing rights. Carl Hansberry wanted to live in a house in a neighborhood called Washington Park. There was a rule in the neighborhood that restricted who could live there. African Americans were not allowed to live in the neighborhood. Carl Hansberry’s activism helped in the fight against housing discrimination.

The family moved into the house in Washington Park when Lorraine was eight years old. It was difficult for them to live there. Racist White neighbors threatened them. One day, a large group of White people gathered outside the house. A man threw a brick into the window. It almost hit eight-year-old Lorraine. Her family was afraid. Lorraine’s mother walked around the house at night with a loaded gun.

Throughout her life, Hansberry thought a lot about freedom for African Americans. She thought about the different ways to fight for freedom. She knew that people were tired of being oppressed. She understood why people used many forms of protest, including peaceful and violent protest. She showed some of her ideas in her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun.

Hansberry became interested in theater when she was in high school. After she graduated from Englewood High School in Chicago, she enrolled in the University of Wisconsin. She didn’t finish her degree. After that, she studied painting in Chicago and Mexico at the University of Guadalajara. In 1950, she moved to New York and began writing.

Hansberry was very political. She wrote articles for a political magazine called Freedom. During a protest against racial discrimination at New York University, she met a young Jewish writer and musician named Robert Nemiroff. They got married in 1953.

Hansberry and Nemiroff worked together and supported each other’s work and personal lives. They were a political couple. They went to protests together and stayed up late talking about political issues. Hansberry was an anti-war activist, a civil rights activist, and a women’s rights activist. She was always ready for a protest or a political fight. At the same time, she continued to write.

Hansberry wrote her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun, in 1957. She was 29 when she wrote the play. It was the first play written by an African American woman that was performed on Broadway. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. She was also nominated for several Tony Awards.

Suddenly, Hansberry was famous. People wrote articles about her. She had interviews with magazines and newspapers. She received many letters from fans. She enjoyed some parts of this fame. At first, she tried to respond to every letter that she received. She enjoyed making connections with people and discussing ideas.

However, her fame also made her feel lonely. People criticized her. Some said that her play was only for African American audiences. Some said that her play was about everyone, not only African Americans. But Hansberry believed that the identities of her characters were important to the story. She believed that it was important to learn about specific people. She said it was important that her characters were Black, and from Chicago, and from the Southside. She said that if you can understand a very specific story, it can teach you about everyone. She wanted to show the truth of what it was to live as an African American in Southside Chicago in the 1950s.

The characters in A Raisin in the Sun are based on Hansberry’s own family. Lena (Mama) was like her own mother. Big Walter was like her father. Ruth and Walter Lee were like her brothers, their wives, and her sister. Hansberry said that Beneatha was like her.

Like Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry thought a lot about identity during her life. She was a ‘closeted’ lesbian. ‘Closted’ means that she did not talk about her sexuality publicly. She had many gay and lesbian friends, but it was difficult at that time to be openly LGBT+, Black, and a woman. She separated from Nemiroff in 1957 and they divorced in 1962. They continued to be good friends, and they continued to work together throughout their separation. After Hansberry’s death, Nemiroff published a collection of her letters and writings into a biography. He wanted the world to know Lorraine.

Hansberry died when she was only 34 years old. In 1963, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She spent a lot of time in hospitals, but the doctors could not remove her cancer.

She continued writing and working throughout her illness. She published her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in 1964. She died a few weeks later on January 12, 1965.

After her death, Hansberry’s writing continued to be important in American culture. A Raisin in the Sun is still performed today. There are movie versions and TV adaptations. Her writing inspired musicians. They wrote songs about her ideas. In Seattle, Washington, there is an organization called The Hansberry Project for African American artists and writers. She is listed in the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, the American Theater Hall of Fame, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

The title of A Raisin in the Sun is based on a Langston Hughes poem called “Harlem.” The poem talks about a dream deferred. A ‘dream deferred’ is a dream that is still waiting. Many of Hansberry’s hopes and dreams were not finished when she died. But she hoped that future generations would continue fighting for freedom and peace.

Harlem

By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?