Born this day in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry, playwright. Hansberry is best known for her outstanding play, A Raisin In the Sun This play was the story of her family's struggle and legal battle against segregated housing laws in Washington Park subdivision Southside Chicago. Hansberry also wrote political speeches, letters and essays. College in the mid-west was not for Hansberry, so a move to New York City. It was 1950 and Hansberry was studying at The New School, there she worked on the school's newspaper Freedom, under the name Paul Robeson. It is at the time Hansberry wrote A Raisin In the Sun. It was first play written by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway At the age of 29 she was also became the youngest American playwright AND only the 5th woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Other plays produced on Broadway in her lifetime were The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window which closed after 110 performances which was also the day Lorraine Hansberry died,at the young age of 34.
Hansberry's ex-husband Robert Nemiroff was the executor of her unfinished manuscripts.
Nemiroff adapted several of her writings into the play, To Be Young, Gifted and Black the longest running Off Broadway play of the 1968-69 season. He also made some minor changes the play Les Blancs which Julius Lester felt was her best work. Lorraine Hansberry's work has remained important to the Arts, to Life and wow, we only had her for a very few moments on this Earth, but those moments have turned into generations of influence in our culture.
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