Lorraine Hansberry

Writing

Lorraine Hansberry

Born — Died

1930-05-19 — 1965-01-12

Place of birth

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

7 titles

Lorraine Hansberry was born May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Her family challenged legal segregation, giving rise to the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee. This might have inspired Hansberry to accomplish a first: The opening of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway on March 11, 1959, which was adapted to screenplay form for two feature films. No black female author had done the former before. The play's storyline about the Youngers, a black family trying out an integrationist vision of life in spite of societal racism, resonates with Hansberry's father's legal battle from a decade earlier. Although Hansberry had many writings published and wrote other plays, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Win…

Known for

The David Susskind Show poster
7.0

The David Susskind Show is an American television talk show hosted by David Susskind. The program began its existence in 1958 as Open End, and was broadcast by WNTA-TV in New York City. The title referred to the fact that the program continued until Susskind or his guests were too tired to continue late on a Sunday night.

The David Susskind Show

1959

A Raisin in the Sun poster
7.7

Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.

A Raisin in the Sun

1961

Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement poster
9.0

This documentary explores the growth and development of black theatre from its earliest roots, also examining its close ties with the civil rights movement. Included are interviews with veterans of the theatrical world such as James Earl Jones and Ed Bullins.

Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement

1978

National Theatre Live: Les Blancs poster
6.0

An African country teeters on the edge of civil war. A society prepares to drive out its colonial present and claim an independent future. Racial tensions boil over. Tshembe, returned home from England for his father’s funeral, finds himself in the eye of the storm.

National Theatre Live: Les Blancs

2019

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words poster
NR

Excerpts from the 1969 Off-Broadway production at the Cherry Lane Theater of To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry, adapted by Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry's widower, and directed by Gene Frankel.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words

1969

To Be Young, Gifted and Black poster
7.0

A mosaic biopic on Lorraine Hansberry, based on the stage play combining her unpublished writings, letters, and diaries.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black

1972

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera