Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Discover the life and legacy of Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965), pioneering American playwright behind A Raisin in the Sun. Explore her biography, major works, activism, and her memorable reflections on race, art, and justice.

Introduction

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was a trailblazing American playwright, essayist, and cultural critic whose short life (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) left an outsize impact on theater, civil rights, and African American cultural expression. She holds the distinction of being the first Black woman playwright to have a play produced on Broadway (A Raisin in the Sun) and used her art to confront racial injustice, identity, colonialism, and human dignity. In this article, we explore the life and career of Lorraine Hansberry, her guiding beliefs, some of her most powerful quotes, and the lessons from her journey.

Early Life and Family

Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Carl Augustus Hansberry, a successful real-estate broker, and Nannie Louise (née Perry), who was a teacher and civic activist.

In 1938, Carl Hansberry purchased a home in a primarily white neighborhood in Chicago’s Washington Park subdivision. This sparked resistance and legal challenges from white neighbors who attempted to force the Hansberry family out via restrictive covenants. The Hansberrys’ legal battle would eventually contribute to the Supreme Court decision in Hansberry v. Lee (1940).

Lorraine grew up in an intellectually vibrant household. Her parents hosted or associated with prominent Black intellectuals, artists, and leaders including W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, and others.

From her early years, Hansberry absorbed both the pressures of racial inequality and the hope for possibility — dynamics that would deeply inform her writing.

Youth and Education

Hansberry attended Englewood High School in Chicago, graduating in 1948. University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she became politically active, including by integrating a dormitory and joining student movements. New York City to pursue writing and theater.

In New York, she studied at The New School, while becoming deeply immersed in political, literary, and artistic circles. Freedom, where she was involved in writing, organizing, and editorial work, alongside luminaries like Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois.

Her formative years in New York exposed her to Black radical thought, anti-colonial writing, and debates over identity, which became central to her dramatic voice.

Career and Achievements

A Raisin in the Sun and Broadway Breakthrough

Hansberry began writing A Raisin in the Sun in the late 1950s, drawing from her family’s own experiences with housing discrimination and the deferred dreams of many Black Americans. March 11, 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

The success was historic: Hansberry became the first Black woman author to have a play produced on Broadway. New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play at age 29, making her the first African American dramatist, the youngest playwright, and only the fifth woman to receive that honor. A Raisin in the Sun was nominated for several Tony Awards and went on to become a classic of American theater.

The title is drawn from the Langston Hughes poem “Harlem”, specifically the line “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” — evoking the image of a dream deferred.

Later Plays, Writing & Political Engagement

Hansberry went on to write other works, including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (first Broadway production opened in 1964). Sidney Brustein was interrupted, and the play closed the night she passed.

She also conceptualized and worked on Les Blancs, a powerful play grappling with colonialism, race, and revolution in Africa. Though she died before its full staging, Les Blancs was published and produced posthumously.

Hansberry’s writing extended beyond drama. She wrote essays and speeches about race, colonialism, liberation struggles, and identity — notably “The Negro Writer and His Roots” and “Integration into a Burning House.”

Personal Life & Challenges

In 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher and writer. Though they separated in 1957 and formally divorced in 1962, Nemiroff remained her literary executor and champion of her work after her death.

Hansberry also lived as a closeted lesbian, writing private letters under initials to The Ladder, a lesbian rights publication.

She experienced chronic health issues in her later years and was hospitalized for signs of pancreatic cancer. Interestingly, she was not always told the full severity of her condition. She died on January 12, 1965, at the age of 34, in New York City.

At her funeral in Harlem, many civil rights figures paid tribute. A message from Martin Luther King Jr. was read, and James Baldwin contributed a tribute calling her work and grasp of deep social issues an inspiration for future generations.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Segregation and housing covenants: The Hansberry family’s own legal suit (Hansberry v. Lee) challenged racially restrictive housing covenants, a fight that prefigured broader civil rights litigation.

• Black Arts & Civil Rights movement: Hansberry’s writing emerged in tandem with the rising struggle for desegregation, Black liberation, and decolonization. She aligned with Pan-African and leftist currents.

• Women and intersectionality: As a Black woman, Hansberry confronted both racial and gendered expectations. Her work, life, and identity anticipated later intersectional feminist critiques.

• Colonial and global vision: Hansberry’s later writings and her unfinished Les Blancs connected African American struggle with anti-colonial movements in Africa, reflecting a broader geopolitical sensibility.

• Theater as social mirror: Hansberry transformed what African American life could look like on stage — not caricature, but nuanced family conflict, dignity, aspiration, and moral tension.

Legacy and Influence

Lorraine Hansberry’s legacy endures in multiple domains:

• Canon of American drama: A Raisin in the Sun remains a cornerstone of American theater and African American literature, studied, revived, and adapted countless times.

• Cultural and social influence: Her words inspired later movements, and the title To Be Young, Gifted and Black (drawn from her unfinished autobiography) became a rallying cry, memorialized in the song by Nina Simone.

• Theatrical institutions: The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco is named in her honor.

• Inspiration to subsequent writers: Her audacity, intelligence, and intersectional insights have influenced generations of playwrights, scholars, activists, and artists.

• Symbol of courage and creativity: That she accomplished so much in a life cut short reinforces her status as a symbol of what voice and vision can achieve under constraint.

Personality and Talents

Lorraine Hansberry was characterized by:

• Intellectual ferocity: She felt compelled to write the truths she saw. “All which I feel I must write has become obsessive” is a line from her journals.

• Moral urgency: She didn’t see art as a luxury but as a means of engagement and resistance.

• Emotional complexity: Her characters wrestled with desire, disappointment, identity, self-worth, and hope.

• Bravery in selfhood: She lived at the intersections of multiple identities—Black, woman, LGBTQ+, leftist—and did so largely in an era when that was even more fraught.

• Resolution amid fragility: Despite health problems and societal pressures, she pushed forward, producing work that questioned, provoked, and endured.

Famous Quotes of Lorraine Hansberry

Here are some of her most resonant quotes:

“The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.” “Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.” “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.” “You are young, gifted, and black. In the year 1964, I, for one can think of no more dynamic combination that a person might be.” “All which I feel I must write has become obsessive. So many truths seem to be rushing at me as the result of things felt and seen and lived through.” “When you start measuring somebody, measure him right… Make sure you done take into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got wherever he is.” “Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be — if there is to be a world. Write … but write to a point.” “Seems like God don’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams — but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.”

These quotes reflect Hansberry’s tension between dream and reality, her insistence on moral clarity, and her fierce empathy.

Lessons from Lorraine Hansberry

1. Speak truth through art
   Hansberry saw writing not as mere entertainment, but as moral engagement, a way to confront injustice and awaken conscience.

2. Claim your identity fully
   Even under pressure, she did not divide her selfhood—Blackness, womanhood, sexuality, intellectual commitment were all part of who she was.

3. Resistance is multifaceted
   Her activism, writing, and personal life all bore witness that struggle is not just political but spiritual, cultural, and internal.

4. Recognize the weight of history on individuals
   Her reminder to measure someone by the hills and valleys they’ve crossed asks us to judge less and understand more.

5. Create legacy beyond lifespan
   Though she died young, her work continues to live, teach, provoke, and inspire. Impact need not wait for longevity.

6. Write the specific to reach the universal
   Hansberry believed that telling the particular stories of Black life would resonate widely—and she was proven right.

Conclusion

Lorraine Hansberry’s life was as brief as it was luminous. She broke barriers, pursued truth without compromise, and left a literary and political legacy that continues to speak across generations. Her work teaches us that art and justice are inseparable, that identity is not a limit but a vantage, and that one voice—even in a short span—can change the conversation forever.