Lorraine Hansberry

#LorraineHansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965): The first Black woman to have a play performed on Broadway with her work, Hansberry’s #ARaisinInTheSun, which highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago via red-lining, brought to light many truths of American life for Black people in America. Hansberry’s own family had struggled against racism and segregation when she was growing up in #Chicago, and her father worked to challenge a restrictive covenant which eventually brought about the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (which struck down such previously legal racist maneuvers). At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award — making her the first African American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. After she moved to New York City, Hansberry worked at the Pan-Africanist newspaper #Freedom, where she dealt with intellectuals such as Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois. Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggle for liberation and their impact on the world. She was also an activist for gay rights throughout her life and wrote about feminism and homophobia, joining the #DaughtersOfBilitis and contributing two letters to their magazine, #TheLadder, in 1957 under her initials “LHN.” She died of cancer at the age of 34. A very close friend, #NinaSimone, wrote her song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” to commemorate her friend’s contributions to the Black community; this later became the title of Hansberry’s autobiographical play. #PrideMonth #LGBTQIA #LGBTQIAPride #Pride🌈 #LegendsOfPride #YouCannotEraseUs