Lorraine Hansberry
Published on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 4:47pm
Broadway Pioneer
Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in May 1930. She is most famous for A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by an African-American to be performed on Broadway. The actors in the premiere of A Raisin in the Sun included Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier and Lou Gossett Jr.
Hansberry died of cancer at 34 in 1965. Petworth Library has mounted a display of works by and about Lorraine Hansberry, including:
Lorraine Hansberry: Playwright and Voice of Justice by Catherine Sheader
Hansberry's Drama by Steven B. Carter
Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance, edited by Steven C. Tracy
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry