1. Lorraine Hansberry (May 13, 1930-January 12, 1965)
Margaret Baba
ENG 3040 (LGBT Literature)
Dr. Kathryn Wymer
16 November 2016
Photo: LHLT.org

2. Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (Nemiroff)
Born May 13, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois.
Attended University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Moved to New York City and married writer and activist Robert Nemiroff in
Writer, activist, teacher, lesbian, feminist.
Died of pancreatic cancer January 12,
Photo: GVSHP.org

3. A Raisin in the Sun (1959) Photo Credit: Outhistory.org
Photo Credit: The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
Photo Credit: The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections

4. Reactions to A Raisin in the Sun
Her friend James Baldwin exalted, “Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, had so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage” (Anderson, The Village Voice).
“Ms. Hansberry's commitment of spirit, her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.” Martin Luther King, Jr., 1965 (raisinonbroadway.com)

5. Self-proclaimed “heterosexually married lesbian.”
From an unpublished 1961 essay titled “On Homophobia, The Intellectual Impoverishment of Women’ and a Homosexual ‘Bill of Rights’”: “I have suspected for a good time that the homosexual in America would ultimately pay a price for the intellectual impoverishment of women. Men continue to mis- interpret the second-rate status of women as implying a privileged status for themselves; heterosexuals think the same way about homosexuals; gentiles about Jews; whites about blacks; haves about have-nots.” (lhlt.org)
Photo: New York Public Libraries & Lorraine Hansberry Properties Trust

6. Suspected ties with communist party. Investigated by FBI 1952-1965
Suspected ties with communist party. Investigated by FBI Portion of 1052 page declassified file available on Archive.org:
Documents from Archive.org

7. In her own words:
“I think it is about time that equipped women began to take on some of the ethical questions which a male-dominated culture has produced and dissect and analyze them quite to pieces in a serious fashion. It is time that ‘half the human race’ had something to say about the nature of its existence. Otherwise— without revised basic thinking—the woman intellectual is likely to find herself trying to draw conclusions—moral conclusions— based on acceptance of a social moral superstructure which has never admitted to the equality of women and is therefore immoral itself.” 
 Lorraine Hansberry. Letter, signed LN originally published in The Ladder Vol. 1 No. 11 (Aug 1957). Reprinted in The Ladder Vol. I and II.
(Source: LHLT.org)

8. Sources for more information:
 Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust- LHLT.org
“Total Literary Awareness: How the FBI Pre-read African American Writing.” The American Reader, how-the-fbi-pre-read-african-american-writing/
“The Private Life of Lorraine Hansberry: Letters, Lists, and Conversations” by Alexis Clements. Hyperallergic.com lorraine-hansberry-letters-lists-and-conversations/
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. Adapted by Robert Nemiroff with an introduction by James Baldwin. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Photo: The New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections