March 11, 1959
“A Raisin in the Sun,” the first Broadway play written by a Black woman, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.
Lorraine Hansberry, then only 28, drew inspiration for her play from a Langston Hughes’ poem: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
Hansberry also drew on her past, her family winning a landmark court case in 1940 against real estate covenants that discriminated against Black Americans, Jews and others.
She attended the University of Wisconsin, only to leave to pursue a career as a writer in New York City in 1950. She fought against evictions in Harlem, worked with W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson as she wrote for the Black newspaper, Freedom, and made speeches for equal rights.
“Raisin in the Sun” starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeal and Ruby Dee on Broadway and became the first play of the modern era with a Black director, Lloyd Richards. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle named it the best play, and it was adapted into a 1961 film, which starred the original Broadway cast.
Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and Dee won Best Supporting Actress from the National Board of Review.
In 1963, she met with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, questioning the administration’s dedication to civil rights. That same year, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died two years later, and Robeson and SNCC organizer James Forman gave eulogies.
Her friend, Nina Simone, wrote the song, “Young, Gifted and Black” to honor Hansberry. In 1973, her first play became a Broadway musical, “Raisin,” which won the Tony for Best Musical. In 2010, Hansberry’s family home became a historic landmark, and the play, considered one of the great plays of the 20th century, continues to be performed on Broadway and across the nation. PBS featured her in American Masters’ Inspiring Women.
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