Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was an American writer, best known for the play, “A Raisin in the Sun” (1957). It was the first play by a black woman to appear on Broadway.
James Baldwin:
… 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.
It is such a great play that even with a limited actor like Sean Combs playing the lead it is still powerful.
The play is about a black family that buys a house in a white suburb – something her own family did. The first two acts are kind of slow but the last act about moving day is pure, utter genius.
In 1961 it was made into a Hollywood film starring Sidney Poitier, who had played the lead on Broadway. She wrote the screenplay.
Her two other main plays are “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”, which was on Broadway in 1964 but was not a hit, and “Les Blancs”.
Some of her writings were made into an autobiography after her death, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (1969). James Baldwin wrote a beautiful introduction, “Sweet Lorraine”.
Incomplete works at the time of her death:
- “Toussant”, an opera
- “All the Dark and Beautiful Warriors”, an autobiographical novel
She was also thinking of doing plays on Pharaoh Akhnaton, Mary Wollstonecraft and Charles Chesnutt’s “The Marrow of Tradition” (1901).
Born on Chicago’s Southside. her family moved to a white suburb when she was eight. Angry whites gathered in front of their house. A brick was thrown through the window that narrowly missed her. The police were unwilling to protect them. Later the state supreme court ordered them out of the house.
In 1948 she went to the University of Wisconsin. There she became interested in left-wing politics and theatre, studying Ibsen and Strindberg.
In 1950 she dropped out and headed for New York. There she took courses at the New School and, for three years, wrote regularly for Paul Robeson’s Freedom. Later she taught school in Harlem and took part in protests. At one protest she met Robert Nemiroff, whom she married in 1953. In 1956 he wrote a hit song with a friend (“Cindy, Oh, Cindy”) which allowed her to become a full-time writer. She started writing “A Raisin in the Sun”.
In 1960 she wrote “The Drinking Gourd”, a television show for NBC about slavery. NBC never aired it because it was too violent and too “divisive”. But you can read it in “Lorraine Hansberry: The Collected Last Plays” (1983).
In 1962 she joined SNCC and a year later she and James Baldwin went to see Robert Kennedy, then the Attorney General, to try to get him to understand race in America. In time their words sunk in.
In 1963 she began to lose her strength: the doctors said she had pancreatic cancer. Two years later she was dead – at age 34. Over 600 came to her funeral in Harlem.
Baldwin:
Her going did not so much make me lonely as make me realize how lonely we were.
See also:
I just wonder how Sean Combs got that role. That was a powerful role and should have went to a strong actor, not that he was terrible but still…….
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“It is such a great play that even with a limited actor like Sean Combs playing the lead it is still powerful.”
I liked how you used euphemism of “limited” actor to describe Sean Combs acting in the play and film. Yes every time when I read the play “A Raisin in the Sun” it always gets me.
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This is neither here nor there but is it true that Hansberry was a lesbian as some sources have claimed in the past?
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i remember having to watch A Raisin in the Sun in my 11th grade history class.
i remember simply liking the movie cause it was the only one out of all the movies we watched that WASNT a war movie…(my teacher is one of those guys who really loves the civil war and world war 2), its weird, we never even got to the civil rights movement, korean war, or vietman war in class like we should have because he spent so much time on the civil war and world war 2.
i think we only watched that movie cause it was black history month…
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The Wikipedia says she was lesbian, but does not cite a source.
Nndb.com says she was bisexual but gives as its source some approving letters she wrote to a lesbian magazine in 1957. I read the very same thing somewhere else. But in those letters she did not out herself or anything but merely supported gay rights – and that mainly from the point of view of lesbians as being marginalized, first as women, second as gay.
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I don’t know if it was ever confirmed that she was a lesbian. Those are just rumors to me. She was a staunch feminist and probably today would be a womanist. She kind of expressed her views in the character “Beneatha”. I think Beneatha was more or Lorraine’s real character and put it in her play. I sometimes felt that people put that label on her of being a lesbian because of the stereotype of feminist “wanting to be a man” and for that they are considered to be lesbians.
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Beneatha, who does seem like Lorraine Hansberry, did question the need to get married. That hardly makes her a lesbian, but perhaps narrow-minded people in those days assumed as much.
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abagond said:
Beneatha, who does seem like Lorraine Hansberry, did question the need to get married. That hardly makes her a lesbian, but perhaps narrow-minded people in those days assumed as much.
You sure about narrow-minded people in those days? lol There are still people today who would call her a lesbian today because of her feminist views and the funny thing is she was not scared to be labeled so. If you really analyze this play, you would find issues that the Black community still faces and that is the structure of family. Pay attention to the dialouge that Mama gives, Beneatha, Ruth, and Walter Lee Younger. It’s like watching the future in front of me lol.
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Not sure how Sean Combs got the lead. My GUESS is that he put up money to bring the play back to Broadway and later on to make it into a film.
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Umm…I’ve read a few times that Hansberry was a lesbian in the past yet I could never get a confirmation. I was just curious, it wouldn’t change my opinion of her.
Abagond, I thought that all mentions of comments that appeared in another post would be deleted. Why did you drop the ball with comment #8 on this post? That comment was beyond ignorant and was very uncalled for. BTW, did you get my e-mail from a few days ago?
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For what its worth, Hansberry was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. According to several sources, she was a closested lesbian.
See, I always wondered about this aspect of her life as she has been cited an early black gay icon. (Ditto with Langston Hughes). I was originally puzzled by this title but now that I’m reading more about it, it makes more sense.
It looks like Hansberry was a pioneer in even more ways than we initially thought.
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My fault, I just deleted #8. Sorry about that.
I did get your email. It is a good idea. Do you want to do a guest post on it?
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No problem about the gaffe!
I would love to collaborate with you on a guest post on the idea that I proposed. Just give me a time frame of when you’d like it produced.
You didn’t respond to the email so I wasn’t sure if it had been filtered to your email address’ spam folder or something. For the very last time, I want to say that I am truly sorry for participating in the ‘back and forth ad hominem’ that transpired in another post. Being attacked for telling the truth drove me to respond in a kneejerk manner. I was afraid that it lowered your opinion of me. I didn’t want you, Lynette, Nubiah, Islandgirl, Dani, Jasmin and the other great posters to think less of me. I really respect you guys and your viewpoints.
Hansberry, like James Baldwin (and some say) Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, now appears to be an early gay black icon who shaped the face of stage and literature. They truly were pioneers for more worlds than one.
My college alma mata put on an excellent production of “Raisin In the Sun”.
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Commenst #173 and #184 in that other post also don’t adhere to the rules you set. (This is only a message to you, not meant to be posted on this topic.)
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Thanks. You were right about those. I deleted them.
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I could see her maybe sleeping with a woman or two, but I doubt very much she saw herself as gay. If she did we would know it. Just as we do with James Baldwin. She did not see being gay as a matter of shame and therefore something to hide.
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Myname:
“Being attacked for telling the truth drove me to respond in a kneejerk manner. I was afraid that it lowered your opinion of me. I didn’t want you, Lynette, Nubiah, Islandgirl, Dani, Jasmin and the other great posters to think less of me.”
We have had enough experience of you to know you just lost your cool because you were being called a liar.
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“I do not think she thought of herself as gay.”
Really, you think so?
I think the idea of Hansberry being a lesbian is actually cool (as it is somewhat believeable). It provides an example of a black icon who already thought outside of the box being an early example of living an alternative lifestyle. Not too many noted blacks who are homosexual come out with it. It’s a shame because it just adds a new dimension to their perspective.
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There was a black female artist- I’m not sure if this person was her- who was about to die and didn’t finish one of her works. She pretty much left it open to anyone who wanted to finish it. Does anyone remember who this person was?
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[…] it comes to you,” observes Lorraine Hansberry, “the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must […]
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Raisin in the Sun is on Broadway with Denzel Washington, Latanya Richardson, Sophie Okenedo, Anika Noni Rose. Great cast.
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