Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award — making her the first African-American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant in the 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee.

19 May 1930

Born on the same birth date (19 May 1930): Eugene Genovese

Born on the same birth day (19 May): Abraham Pais • Albert Richardson (architect) • Alex Shibicky • Alfred Laliberté • Christopher Chope • Diego Forlán • Heather Watson • James Watney Jr • José de Escandón, 1st Count of Sierra Gorda • Lena Einhorn • Marcedes Lewis • Paul Erdman • Rick Cerone

Born in the same month (May 1930): Edward Seaga • George E. Smith • Heather Harper • Jasper Johns • Karim Emami • Marisol Escobar • Mark Birley • Ollie Matson • Richard Riordan • Robert Ryman • Sam Etcheverry • Sonia Rykiel • Warren Rudman