Black History Profile
08 Feb 05 12:00 AM EST
Lorraine Hansberry:
Profile in Courage for Black History Month
America's foremost black playwright and author of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry was born May 19, 1930, in Chicago. Hansberry enjoyed a privileged upbringing, and among the family friends were Paul Robeson, WEB Du Bois and Langston Hughes.
She graduated from high school in 1948 and went on to the University of Wisconsin, where her attraction to theater increased.
In 1951, she joined Freedom magazine, a journal founded by Paul Robeson. She 
began work on A Raisin in the Sun and in 1957 read the first draft to publisher Philip Rose. That same year, in a letter to the Ladder, she wrote that "It is time that 'half the human race' had something to say about the nature of its existence." She called for a new approach to combat a sexist society, "as per marriage, as per sexual practices, as per the rearing of children, etc.," adding that: "In this kind of work there may be women to emerge who will be able to formulate a new and possible concept that homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma." This stance, notes Gay and Lesbian Biography, was "at once far-sighted and, in 1957, extremely courageous," marking Hansberry's "strong commitment as feminist and pro-lesbian spokesperson," which, "only in recent years has this contribution been noted."
According to the book Completely Queer, Hansberry began to identify herself as a lesbian in the 1950s and was one of the first members of the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis.
A Raisin in the Sun, which came out in 1959, brought Hansberry immediate fame, becoming the first play on Broadway by a black author; it won the New York Drama 
Critics Circle Award, and her screenplay, completed in 1960, won the Cannes Film Festival Award in 1961. She continued writing in the 1960s, and became increasingly involved in supporting the civil rights movement.
On Oct. 15, 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (which included a gay character) opened on Broadway; it was the last of her works to appear in her lifetime. Three months later, on January 10, 1965, Lorraine Hansberry died. Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, completed and published Les Blancs, which appeared on Broadway in 1970 and which also featured a gay couple. Raisin, the musical adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, was staged in 1973, winning a Tony Award for best Broadway musical.
It is fitting that the theater named in her honor, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, CA is the creation of Stanley E. Williams who serves as the theater’s Artistic Director and his life partner, Quentin Easter the theater’s Executive Director.
NBJC salutes Hansberry for her foresight, vision and courage. Her strong commitment is an inspiration to us all.
