1. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
“Take away the violence and who will hear the men of peace?”

2. Playwright Information
An American playwright and artist (painter)
Born on May 19, 1930 (Chicago, Illinois)
Died on January 12, 1965
Was the youngest of three children
Her parents and family were very affluent; (activist family)
Father was a prominent real-estate broker
Uncle was a prestigious professor of African History at Howard University

3. Education Attended the University of Wisconsin
Found college to be uninspiring
Dropped out in 1950 and moved to New York
Pursued her writing career at The New School for Social Research in New York City
A very progressive and socially minded school

4. Social Awareness and Activism
Hansberry’s parents were intellectuals and activists
Active and very involved in civil rights activities
Hansberry joined the Young Progressives of America and the Labor Youth League while at the University of Wisconsin

5. Activism (continued)
Worked as an associate editor of Paul Robeson’s Freedom, a radical magazine
Met her husband, Robert B. Nemiroff, on a picket line protesting discrimination at New York University
Married in 1953 and began to devote herself entirely to writing
“The melody was one that I had known for a very long time”

6. Influences W.E.B. Dubois Langston Hughes African studies
Famous Harlem Renaissance poet
The title of the play comes from a line in a Langston Hughes poem
Deeply inspired her

7. Discrimination
When Lorraine was 8 years old her parents bought a house in an “all white” neighborhood
Her family was met by a racist mob when they attempted to move in to their new home
Mr. Hansberry sued, and won an anti- segregation case before the Illinois Supreme Court (led to a civil rights case)

8. Achievements and Recognition
Received immediate acclaim and recognition for A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was the first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway
The play won the New York Drama Critics’ Award as the best play of the year; at the age of 29 she was the youngest woman to receive this award

9. Death Lorraine Hansberry died on January 12, 1965 at the age of 34
Died from pancreatic cancer
Funeral was held in Harlem on January 15, 1965
“Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.” -Dr. Martin Luther King