Lake View East in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Lorraine Hansberry
The Legacy Walk
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, August 26, 2021
1. Lorraine Hansberry Marker
Inscription.
Lorraine Hansberry. The Legacy Walk.
Lorraine Hansberry Lesbian U.S. Feminist, Activist and Author (1930 - 1965), . Born the daughter of a middle class Chicago businessman, Lorraine Hansberry’s life in many ways mirrored her art and dedication to social justice. After moving into an all-white Chicago suburb in 1937, the family was met with physical violence. Rather than give into the hostility they sued and, in 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they had a right to remain in their home. In 1950 Hansberry moved to New York City, where she eventually married Jewish songwriter Robert Nemiroff, whom she quietly divorced in 1964. Her play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ (1959) was the first play written by an African American to be produced on Broadway. It would go on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award – an honor which Hansberry was both the first African American – and the youngest person – to receive. The play, which dealt in human terms with the serious and comic problems of a black family in modern America, was a major stimulus to the 1960s African-American Theater movement. A civil rights activist her entire life, Hansberry began identifying herself as a feminist and lesbian in the 1950s. She applauded the growing West Coast homophile movement and was one of the first members of the New York chapter of the groundbreaking lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis. She wrote several essays for its newsletter The Ladder under the pen-name “L.H.N.” proffering that “…homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma.” Hansberry linked the struggle for gay rights, rights for people of color, and rights for women long before such terms as ‘homophobia’ and ‘feminism’ had come into the vernacular. She died from cancer in 1965 at the age of 34. Her ex-husband assembled posthumous collections of her unfinished works, letters, and diary entries – most notably To Be Young Gifted and Black (1969), whose title was drawn from the last speech Hansberry made to young winners of a United Negro College Fund writing contest.
Lorraine Hansberry
Lesbian U.S. Feminist, Activist and Author
(1930 - 1965)
Born the daughter of a middle class Chicago businessman, Lorraine Hansberry’s life in many ways mirrored her art and dedication to social justice. After moving into an all-white Chicago suburb in 1937, the family was met with physical violence. Rather than give into the hostility they sued and, in 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they had a right to remain in their home. In 1950 Hansberry moved to New York City, where she eventually married Jewish songwriter Robert Nemiroff, whom she quietly divorced in 1964. Her play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ (1959) was the first play written by an African American to be produced on Broadway. It would go on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award – an honor which Hansberry was both the first African American – and the youngest person – to receive. The play, which dealt in human terms with the serious and comic problems of a black family in modern America, was a major stimulus to the 1960s African-American Theater movement. A civil rights activist her entire life, Hansberry began identifying herself as a feminist and lesbian in the 1950s. She applauded the growing West Coast homophile movement and was one of the first members of the New York chapter of the groundbreaking
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lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis. She wrote several essays for its newsletter The Ladder under the pen-name “L.H.N.” proffering that “…homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma.” Hansberry linked the struggle for gay rights, rights for people of color, and rights for women long before such terms as ‘homophobia’ and ‘feminism’ had come into the vernacular. She died from cancer in 1965 at the age of 34. Her ex-husband assembled posthumous collections of her unfinished works, letters, and diary entries – most notably To Be Young Gifted and Black (1969), whose title was drawn from the last speech Hansberry made to young winners of a United Negro College Fund writing contest.
Location. 41° 56.875′ N, 87° 38.966′ W. Marker is in Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County. It is in Lake View East. Marker is on North Halsted Street north of West Addison Street, on the right when
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, August 26, 2021
2. Lorraine Hansberry Marker - wide view, looking north on North Halsted Street
The Hansberry marker shares a rainbow pylon with the marker for Two Spirit indigenous peoples, which is actually the marker visible here - the Hansberry marker is on the other side of this pylon.
traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 3607 North Halsted Street, Chicago IL 60613, United States of America. Touch for directions.
3. In Her Own Words. Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust website entry:
A selection of the author's quotes, selected by her literary trust.
Excerpt from a letter to The Ladder (Vol. 1 No. 8; May, 1957): As one raised in a subculture experience (I am a Negro) where those within were and are forever lecturing to their fellows about how to appear acceptable to the dominant social groups, I know something about the shallowness of such a view in and of
3. Marker inset: Lorraine Hansberry
itself…what ought to be clear is that one is oppressed or discriminated against because one is ‘different’, not ‘wrong’ or ‘bad.’ This is perhaps the bitterest of the entire pill.
Friedman-Abeles Studio (courtesy of the New York Public Library), 1955
4. Publicity portrait of playwright Lorraine Hansberry
This is almost certainly the source image for the marker inset photo - compare with Photo No. 3.
Prentice-Hall Publishing Co. (courtesy of the University of Minnesota Libraries), 1969
5. To be young, gifted, and black : Lorraine Hansberry in her own words dust jacket
Credits. This page was last revised on January 6, 2024. It was originally submitted on September 14, 2021, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 340 times since then and 60 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on September 14, 2021, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
3. Marker inset: Lorraine Hansberry
