Black history fact #15

Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was a playwright. She was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. Hansberry was also the first black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critic's Circle award. Her best know work, the play "A Raisin in the Sun,"which  focuses on the struggles of a black family living in a racially segregated Chicago, was staged in 1959. The title of the play was taken from the Langston Hughes poem "Harlem:" "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up  like a raisin in the sun?" The film version of the play was completed in 1961, starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, and received an award at the Cannes Film Festival. nto a film. It was also developed into a musical in 1973, which ran for three years and won a Tony award. "A Raisin in the Sun" continues to reach new audiences, as it has been revived on Broadway in 2004 and 2014 (winning Tony Awards both years) and has been produced on television in 1989 and 2008.  

Thank you Lorraine Hansberry for your beautifully honest portrayal of black American lives!