Lorraine_Hansberry_meet_the_author_powerpoint

							 Born May 19, 1930
Died January 12, 1965
What Lorraine was
dealt in life…
Black and female –
 two identities that
 dominated her life
  Lorraine rejected
limits placed on her
by race and gender.
She used writing and
her life as a social
activist to expand
what it meant to be a
black woman.
•youngest child of Carl
and Nannie’s 4 children
           •respected and
           successful black
           Chicago family
         (enjoyed financial
          success at a time
        when few blacks did)
  •parents were activists
dedicated to taking a stand
 against segregation and
      discrimination
•Lorraine’s father
was a successful
banker, real estate
broker, inventor
and politician
who ran for
Congress in 1940.
•Lorraine’s mother was
  a college educated
daughter of an African
 Methodist Episcopal
  Minister; a former
    schoolteacher.
•When Lorraine was 7,
 the Hansberry family
  moved to restricted
 white neighborhood
(against the law at the
time); here they faced
  violence and hatred.
•Lorraine’s parents filed
   a civil rights suit in
court, but were evicted
  from their home by
   Illinois state court.
•US Supreme Court
later reversed this
decision on appeal and
the Hansberry family
returned to their
home.
•Parents active in NAACP
•The Hansberry children
attended segregated
Chicago public elementary
school because parents
wanted to work within the
system to change the laws.
  •Lorraine attended the
 University of Wisconsin at
   Madison for 2 years.
•Lorraine moved to NYC for
  “an education of another
kind” (studied African culture
   and history with W.E.B.
           DuBois)
  •Lorraine worked as an
editor for Paul Robeson’s
 radical black newspaper ,
        Freedom.
•Met Robert Nemiroff while on
     a picket line protesting
 exclusion of blacks from NYU
         basketball team.
   •Nemiroff was wealthy,
       white and Jewish.
  •The couple fell in love and
       married in 1953.
 •Completed first play, A Raisin
   in the Sun, in 1959 at age 29
  •Based the play on childhood
 experiences of desegregating a
       white neighborhood
 •Characters suffer, hope, dream
    and triumph over enormous
barriers erected by dominant white
               culture.
•First play written by an African
American woman to be produced
          on Broadway


     •Won NY Drama
    Critics Award as Best
      Play of the Year
•Youngest American, fifth
 woman, and first African
American to win this award

   •Film version of Raisin
  followed in 1961 starring
       Sidney Poitier
 •Opened the floodgates
for a generation of black
  actors and writers who
  were influenced by her
                  writing
    •Success of Raisin enabled
Hansberry to work and advance two
  political causes she believed in:
   1. Civil Rights in America
   2.African struggle against
           colonialism
     •Raised money, gave impassioned
    speeches, and took part in panels to
            further these causes
    •Lived only 6 short
     years after Raisin
•Died at the age of 34 from cancer
on the closing night of her second
play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s
             Window
   “Her commitment of
spirit…her creative ability,
and her profound grasp of
the deep social issues…will
 remain an inspiration to
 generations yet unborn.”
 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.