Lorriane+Hansberry+bio

__Important Facts__
 * __Lorriane Hansberry Bio__ **

Lorraine was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930 and died on January 12, 1965 due to cancer

 * She was the youngest of 4 Children
 * Lorraine was interested in AFrica, an interest that started when she was younger, and she even wrote an unfinished partly autobiographical book about this interest
 * Hansberry married Robert B. Nemiroff, a Jewish literature student and songwriter, but later quietly divorced him in Mexico. To escape bad pulicity, her family moved to Los Angeles

Contribution by: Cameron Godfrey and Arielle Tindel; Organization by Kalina Pateva, Cameron Godfrey, and Arielle Tindel **

__Early years and later Career__
 * Hansberry was interested in writing at a very early age. During her high school years however, she was mainly drawn toward theater
 * In 1950, Lorraine decided to drop out of college after just two years. She instead went to take writing classes at the New School of Social Research in New York
 * While taking the writing classes, she worked as an associate editor for //Freedom,// a radical black magazine. During this career, she met Langston Hughes, the famous poet who had a very great influence on her
 * The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window was completed in 1964 and closed on the night of her death, when she was only 34 years old.

When Lorraine was very young, her family moved into a predominately white neighborhood. This caused lots of discrimination, which then caused law case and trial. Although her father won the law case, the whites of the neighborhood grew hostile and threw bricks at her house, one of which almost hit little Lorraine in the head. This accident played an important role in Lorraine's later //A Raisin in the Sun.//

__ Content Contribution by: Kalina Pateva, Arielle Tindel; Organization by: Kalina Pateva, Arielle Tindel, Cameron Godfrey** __

__Family Facts__

__Content Contribution by: Cameron Godfrey; Organization by: Kalina Pateva, Cameron Godfrey, Arielle Tindel__
 * **Her father owned a successful real-estate business**
 * **Her mother was a well-educated matriarch,**
 * **This made it easy for the family to enjoy financial prosperity. Having such success and prosperity was extremely uncommon in African American families at that time.**

__Sources__ [] [|http://www.gradesaver.com/author/lorraine-hansberry/] Ms. Messer's materials Awards Lorraine was the first black playwright to have her play on Broadway. She received the New York Critics' Circle award for being the youngest American, first black playwright, and 5th woman at the time to receive it.

List of awards: ** 1959 Won New York Critics' Circle Award ** ** 1959 Named “most promising playwright” of the season by Variety’s poll of New York drama critics ** ** 1961 Film of //A Raisin in the Sun// wins award at Cannes Film Festival **

She answered "Well, I hadn't noticed the contradiction because I'd always been under the impression that Negroes //are// people. But actually it's an excellent question, because invariably that has been the point of reference Nemiroff." __Content contribution by: Tabitha Niederer__
 * //Random Quote//---An interviewer asked, "This is not really a Negro play; why, this could be about anybody! It's a play about people! What is your reaction? What do say?" **