By: Andromeda Pearson
Photo by David Attie / Getty
Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright and activist, largely known for A Raisin in the Sun, a play about a struggling black family living in the South Side of Chicago during the 1950’s which deals with issues such as racism, assimilation, segregation, and housing discrimination. Hansberry was the first black, female author to have a play that was performed on Broadway. Throughout her life she wrote many essays on racism, homophobia, and many other issues and highly encouraged a more radical approach to fighting injustice as she had tried for a while to take “respectable” approaches and recognized their ineffectiveness.
According to Queer Portraits in History, as she worked on writing A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry “joined the pioneering lesbian organization, The Daughters of Bilitis, and contributed two letters to their publication, The Ladder. Signing only her initials, Hansberry described herself as a “heterosexually married lesbian,” and wrote about the intersectionality of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. On one telling piece of paper where she had written a personal list of likes and dislikes, she placed “my homosexuality” under both categories.” Though she was married to Robert Nemiroff at the time, by 1957 they had quietly ended their relationship but were still close friends and she began to discreetly date women.
Learn More About Lorraine Hansberry:
Learn more about her life:
- American Radio Works – “Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Revolution and White Backlash”: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/lhansberry.html
- National Theatre – “Young, Gifted and Black: who was Lorraine Hansberry?”: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/blog/young-gifted-and-black-who-was-lorraine-hansberry
Learn more about her queer identity:
- Legacy Project Chicago – “Lorraine Hansberry”: https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/lorraine-hansberry
- Queer Portraits in History – “Lorraine Hansberry”: https://www.queerportraits.com/bio/hansberry
- Making Gay History – “Lorraine Hansberry”: https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/lorraine-hansberry/
Read her works:
- Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust: https://www.lhlt.org/