Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Welcome to Windham High School’s production of Raisin in The Sun from the school's drama department. This information in the following will help you get more information of the play. Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. As noted in the biographical video from “Project Dystopia”. She grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood in the south side of Chicago. She was a daughter of civil rights activists named Carl and Nannie Hansberry. At eight years old, Hansberry and her family moved to a white neighborhood. From their neighbors they faced violence and hatred. After many attacks at her home, like a brick thrown through the window almost hitting Hansberry, Hansberry and her whole family almost got evicted because of Chicago's racial covenants. Carl Hansberry and lawyers from the NAACP brought it to the Supreme Court from facing housing discrimination and the eviction was overturned. Hatred wasn't only at the home, but at school too. Hansberry had worn a white fur coat to school and had gotten beaten up out of jealousy from her classmates for having more money

Her father died while in Mexico trying to find a home there to escape the racism. He suffered from a brain aneurysm at fifty one. While this happened during Hansberry’s final years of highschool she still kept going. She enrolled a the University of Wisconsin, but after two years her growing interest in the arts led her to other places. She worked on a magazine and hung around the theater, read plays, made drawings and sketches, and wrote. Hansberry died an untimely death at age thirty four from pancreatic cancer in January 12, 1965. The background knowledge about Hansberry’s helps the readers have the insight that the Younger family’s move to the new white neighborhood can be dangerous. It also draws connections with Hansberry’s character Beneatha, that they are both smart, hardworking and want women’s