What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a Raisin in the Sun? This is a line from the poem “Harlem: A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes. “A Raisin in the Sun,” is the name of a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. She took this title from the poem. She was a young playwright and the first African American woman to have a play on Broadway.
Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago to a family heavily involved in Civil Rights. Her father worked for the NAACP. As a result, she was exposed to many great figures of the movement and knew of the struggles of Black America. When she was 7 years old her family moved to an all-white neighborhood in Chicago. This was to protest discrimination. This eventually led to a Supreme Court case her family won, helping to tackle housing discrimination in this country. It was seeing all this that helped in nurturing the topics of her work.
“A Raisin in the Sun” opened on Broadway in 1959 and by 1961 it was a movie starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. This play spoke volumes to the struggles of many Black families during this time and is still very much relevant today. She dies from pancreatic cancer at the very young age of 34. She was once married to a Jewish man, Robert Nemiroff, but she identified as a lesbian following their divorce and ended her life with a partner. At the time of her death in 1965, being in a same sex relationship was illegal, so she never got to fully live her life.
Hansberry’s contribution to our society lives on. In 2006, “A Raisin in the Sun” was brought back to Broadway for a limited time. In 2008, it was again brought to the screen as a television special. Since her death there have been many Broadway shows depicting stories of Black America because of her. Let us all rememeber her life and influence for generations to come.