Lorraine Hansberry: Playwright and Author

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 19th, 1930. She was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York's Critics Circle Award. She was heavily involved in Civil Rights. She died at 34 of pancreatic cancer. Lorraine was the grand daughter of a freed slave. Her father was a real estate broker and her mother was a school teacher. Her parents contributed large amounts of money to the NAACP and the Urban league. She studied writing at the University of Wisconsin but dropped out after 2 years to move to New York City. In New York she studied Social Research, after that she quit her jobs and dedicate her life to writing. She died on January 12, 1965 of Pancreatic Cancer.



I retrieved my information from this website:

http://www.biography.com/people/lorraine-hansberry-9327823