Object Details
Artist
David Attie, 1920 - 1982
Sitter
Lorraine Hansberry, 19 May 1930 - 12 Jan 1965
Exhibition Label
Born Chicago, Illinois
In March 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin
in the Sun opened on Broadway to glowing reviews. The twenty-nine-year-old writer became the first African American playwright to win the coveted New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Hansberry’s story, which centers on a Black family’s attempt to buy a house in a white Chicago neighborhood, drew on her family’s experiences of racism.
Hansberry was a civil rights activist who associated with the Communist Party of America and supported aggressive anti-racist action. When CBS correspondent Mike Wallace interviewed her during the run of A Raisin in the Sun, she asserted that Black people had “a great deal to be angry about . . . they are still lynching Negroes in America. I feel, as our African friends do, that we need to point toward the total liberation of the African peoples all over the world.”
Nacida en Chicago, Illinois
En marzo de 1959, la obra Una pasa al sol de Lorraine Hansberry debutó en Broadway con excelentes críticas. A sus 29 años, la autora se convirtió en la primera afroamericana que ganó el codiciado Premio del Círculo de Críticos de Teatro de Nueva York. La trama, basada en el racismo que padeció su familia, gira en torno a una familia negra que intenta comprar una casa en un vecindario blanco de Chicago.
Activista pro derechos civiles y aliada del Partido Comunista de EE.UU., Hansberry apoyaba la acción agresiva contra el racismo. Cuando Mike Wallace, corresponsal de CBS, la entrevistó mientras estaba en cartelera Una pasa bajo el sol, afirmó que el pueblo negro tenía “mucho por lo que estar enfurecido [...] todavía linchan negros en Estados Unidos.
Al igual que nuestros amigos africanos, pienso que tenemos que aspirar a la liberación total de los pueblos africanos en todo el mundo”.
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Date
1959
Object number
NPG.93.92
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© David Attie
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 34.6 x 27.3 cm (13 5/8 x 10 3/4")
Sheet: 35.6 x 27.8 cm (14 x 10 15/16")
Mat: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22")
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Topic
Interior
Printed Material\Papers
Artwork\Photograph
Equipment\Drafting & Writing Implements\Writing implement\Pen
Home Furnishings\Furniture\Desk
Home Furnishings\Lighting Devices\Lamp
Artwork\Sculpture\Statuette
Artwork\Poster
Lorraine Hansberry: Female
Lorraine Hansberry: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Magazine article writer
Lorraine Hansberry: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Novelist
Lorraine Hansberry: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Playwright
Lorraine Hansberry: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Screenwriter
Portrait
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npg_NPG.93.92