Lorraine Hansberry: Award-Winning Playwright and Civil Rights Activist (PB) (1998)

Lorraine Hansberry tells the fascinating story of the brave and talented woman who, almost singlehandedly, overcame the racial obstacles that made for a segregated American theatre in the years following World War II. Hansberry was just twentynine years old when her play A Raisin in the Sun opened in 1959an era wher her very existence as a black, female writer wwas considered unusual. The play was an overnight sensation, earning its author the double distinction of being the youngest playwright and first black person to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. In Hansberry's own words, A Raisin in the Sun tells the truth about people... We have among our miserable and downtrodden ranks people who are the very essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.