Hansberry, Lorraine
1930-1965 · Contribution: 1959-1965
Playwriting and essays; her play 'A Raisin in the Sun' (1959) dramatized a working-class Black family's struggles with housing discrimination and deferred dreams on Chicago's South Side
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
First Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway and the first Black playwright (and youngest American) to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play (1959); 'A Raisin in the Sun' is considered a landmark of American theater.
Life & background
African-American playwright and activist born May 19, 1930 in Chicago. Wrote for Paul Robeson's paper 'Freedom'; also wrote 'The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.' The autobiographical 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' was assembled posthumously. Died of pancreatic cancer Jan 12, 1965, age 34.
Sources
- National Women's History Museum; Encyclopædia Britannica; EBSCO
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