Lorraine Hansberry was a trailblazing playwright, author and activist who used her personal experiences of segregation in Chicago to create the revolutionary play, “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Born in Chicago on May 19, 1930, Hansberry and her family faced pressure from growing racial tensions which triggered the Hansberry v. Lee Supreme Court decision, ruling restrictive covenants illegal.

As a young woman, Hansberry persevered and attended the New School for Social Research in New York, where she studied and worked as an editor of a progressive newspaper, Freedom. Her dedication to providing a voice for the voiceless shined through as she wrote about feminism and homophobia in America.

Hansberry used a line from a Langston Hughes poem and the story of a struggling African-American family to create the groundbreaking play “A Raisin in the Sun.”

The landmark 1959 theatrical production made her the first black woman to see her play performed on Broadway. Hansberry became the youngest American and first African-American playwright to win a New York Critics’ Circle award and a 1961 film adaptation starring Sydney Poitier.  

Off Broadway, Hansberry became active in the civil rights movement alongside her friend, Nina Simone. “A Raisin in the Sun” has been adapted numerous times over the years and remains a landmark of American literature and theatre.