Without question, Lorraine Hansberry鈥檚 A Raisin in the Sun is one of the most important plays ever written about Chicago. Emotionally powerful and intellectually provocative, it vividly shows an African-American family鈥檚 struggles to escape the shackles of segregation on the city鈥檚 South Side. When it made its New York premiere in 1959, it was the first time a script by a black woman had ever been performed on Broadway. It was filmed in 1961 with stars Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. And it did not take long to gain status as a true American classic, becoming one of the country鈥檚 most-produced plays.
A Raisin in the Sun is so beloved and respected that it has overshadowed Hansberry鈥檚 other writings 鈥� as well as the story of Hansberry herself. 鈥淲hat I kept hearing was: 鈥楽he died so tragically young that we don鈥檛 know what she would have become,鈥欌� says Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, published Fall 2018 by Beacon Press. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realize how much she鈥檇 actually written. She wrote so much, in a very short life.鈥�
Hansberry, a Chicago native who grew up on the South Side before moving to New York, died of cancer in 1965, at the age of 34, cutting short a life bursting with promise and potential. In addition to plays, she鈥檇 written fiction and essays, demonstrating a thoughtful intellectual prowess, as well as a talent for creating realistic characters. 鈥淪he wrote the characters in all of her plays in an authentic way,鈥� says Perry, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton University. 鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 writing them to be lessons. But then, they did have lessons to reveal.鈥� Perry鈥檚 book arrives on the heels of a PBS documentary, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, which aired in January 2018 on the American Masters series. Together, they鈥檙e bringing new light onto Hansberry鈥檚 life and literary legacy.
When Hansberry was seven, her family bought a house at 6140 S. Rhodes Avenue in an area of Woodlawn where restrictive covenants forbade white property owners from selling to blacks. White mobs threatened the Hansberrys, spitting on and cursing at Lorraine and her siblings. A chunk of cement came flying through a window at the house, narrowly missing Lorraine and landing in the living room wall. 鈥淭hat was a grotesque sight to see that lodged in the wall,鈥� Lorraine鈥檚 sister, Mamie, later said. 鈥淵ou know that somebody doesn鈥檛 like you, doesn鈥檛 want you there.鈥� Their father, Carl Hansberry, sued for the right to buy a house where he wanted, eventually winning on a technicality at the U.S. Supreme Court.
That experience had a profound effect on Lorraine Hansberry, shaping the story of A Raisin in the Sun, as well as her many stories and essays. Hansberry, whose parents had moved from the Deep South during the Great Migration of African-Americans to the North, developed a nuanced view of racial issues. 鈥淪he was very aware of being a child of migration,鈥� Perry explains. 鈥淪he always had both the South and Chicago in her mind. That gave her a level of sophistication about thinking how deeply entrenched racial inequality was in the society. Chicago was this migration destination, this place where people went to escape the hardships of living in the American South, and then confronted a whole new set of exclusions and bigotries.鈥�
When Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, she borrowed the title from a Langston Hughes poem, which asks: 鈥淲hat happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?鈥� The 46-year-old Perry鈥攚ho grew up in Connecticut, but spent her childhood summers with her father on Chicago鈥檚 West Side鈥攕ays that poem is an apt description for Chicago itself. 鈥淚 often talk about Chicago as the site of the dream and its deferral,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t really is both at once. That鈥檚 the place where the first black president emerged. And it鈥檚 also the place that鈥檚 known as the murder capital right now.鈥�
Hansberry was inspired by the South Side鈥檚 vibrant cultural scene鈥攚hich included writers Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks鈥攁s well as its political activism. Perry says many people overlook just how political Hansberry was鈥攁nd just how radical. A year before Malcolm X鈥檚 famous 1964 鈥渇reedom by any means necessary鈥� speech, Hansberry had delivered a similar message. Giving a speech near her home in New York鈥檚 Hudson Valley, she鈥檇 warned that the oppression of African-Americans was pushing them towards revolution. 鈥淲hether we like the word or not, the condition of our people dictates what can only be called revolutionary attitudes,鈥� she asserted.
Hansberry鈥檚 political mentors were the giants of an older generation of African-Americans: W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. Her friends included author James Baldwin and singer Nina Simone. 鈥淪he鈥檚 this really important mid-20th-century figure, not just as a playwright, but as someone who was at the center of all of these ways of thought and activism,鈥� says Perry.
On May 24, 1963, Hansberry and several other prominent African-Americans met at a Manhattan hotel room to answer Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy鈥檚 questions about how to deal with black protests for civil rights. Hansberry was blunt and direct when she spoke to RFK. At the end of a tense discussion, she declared, 鈥淚 am very worried ... about the state of the civilization which produced that photograph of the white cop standing on that Negro woman鈥檚 neck in Birmingham.鈥� In her book, Perry describes what happened next: 鈥淪he smiled a cutting smile at the attorney general, turned, and walked out. Most of the others followed.鈥� A month later, at the urging of his brother Robert, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech proposing the measures that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Arguably, Hansberry was one of the voices that persuaded the Kennedys to support that landmark legislation. 鈥淭hat was quintessentially her, she was bold and unflinching,鈥� notes Perry. 鈥淪he didn鈥檛 bite her tongue for prominent people and dignitaries.鈥�
Perry鈥檚 book also explores an aspect of Hansberry鈥檚 story that remained largely hidden during her lifetime: her sexuality. 鈥淪he identified as a lesbian and she wrote lesbian literature. I think very few people knew that,鈥� relates Perry.
In 2016, Chicago鈥檚 Goodman Theatre revived one of Hansberry鈥檚 lesser-known plays, The Sign in Sidney Brustein鈥檚 Window, with a critically acclaimed production. 鈥淚 would love to see some of her other plays produced more often,鈥� Perry says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e so pertinent, in the present moment. The Sign in Sidney Brustein鈥檚 Window and [the posthumously released] Les Blancs both deal with sexuality. They deal with interracial intimacy, issues that I think are now even more at the front of people鈥檚 minds.鈥�
Perry sees Hansberry as an inspiration for artists and activists in today鈥檚 鈥渇raught period of history.鈥� As she explains, 鈥淗aving a role model who was always willing to speak truth to power is really important for us.鈥� It鈥檚 impossible to know exactly what Hansberry would make of today鈥檚 America. But if she were still alive, suggests Perry, 鈥淪he鈥檇 have a lot to say. That鈥檚 for sure.鈥�
