Lorraine Hansberry Research Paper

Lorraine Hansberry was the first African-American and the youngest woman to win the New York Drama Critics Award. But that doesn’t mean that she didn’t sacrifice things to become one of the best writers in history. When she was 8 years old, she moved to a white neighborhood and the people would attack them and their home. “ During litigation, white neighbors continually harassed the Hansberry family; in one incident, a brick thrown through their living room window barely missed Hansberry’s head” (209). Her father was a successful Chicago real estate broker so he took them to court. Lorraine’s family refused to move until the Court told them to. The case made it to the Supreme Court making it the Hansberry v. Lee, ruling restrictive covenants

She also broke her family’s tradition for enrolling in Southern black colleges and went to Madison. She attended the University of Wisconsin for painting but then changed her major to writing. After 2 years she decided to drop out of the University and move to New York City. In New York, she joined the staff of Freedom founded by activist Paul Robeson talking about radical while attending the New School for Social Research. She was hired as a writer and associate editor from 1950 to 1953. As she was getting to know what the job held, Hansberry increasingly became aware of the currency of the racial stereotypes in the popular theatre. As she worked this demanding job, she also worked as a waitress and cashier, writing in her spare time. She worked all her jobs until she quit her jobs in 1956 and committed her time to writing. By 1957, she decided to go back in the writing business and she joined the Daughters of Bilitis and wrote letters to their magazine, The Ladder, about feminism and homophobia. Lorraine was facing her own challenges with her sexality when she was writng for the magazines. When she was writing she questioned her own self and then realized that she was different than everyone else. Lorraine's lesbian identity was exposed in her articles but she wrote her initials, L.H., to hide her identity and for the fear of discrimination. Hansberry has been identified as a

A Raisin in the Sun is the breakout story of Lorraine's career. A Raisin in the Sun is about her struggle through her life with dealing with racism. She wanted to write about her struggle through one of the hardest parts in American History. Lorraine wasn’t just dealing with her sexality but, she was dealing with racism while people were fighting for African Americans lives. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 talking about racism and family struggles but, African Americans lives didn’t change until 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech. A Raisin in the Sun was a breakthrough in history because it made people think about what really happens in people's lives and it gave African Americans a voice, finally. “ Set in a modest apartment in Southside Chicago after World War II, the play focuses upon the Younger family: Lena, the matriarch; her son, Walter Lee, a chauffer; her daughter Beneatha,a college student; Walter Lee’s wife, Ruth; and their son, Travis. In the opening scene,Ruth rouses her family on an early Friday morning. Hansberry describes her as “a settled woman,” whose disappointment in life clearly shows in her demeanor. Walter, conversely, is a lean, intense man whose voice always contains “a quality of indictment.” His second question of the morning--”Check come today?” --immediately reveals the central conflict of the play.” (209) Lorraine really