Historian and anthropologist, William Leo Hansberry

Photo portrait of historian and anthropologist, William Leo Hansberry (1894–1965), the brother of Carl Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry’s father. In 1922, Hansberry was the first to teach African history in a university setting in the United States. Faculty at Howard University from 1922 until 1964, Hansberry became mentor to many African American and African students, including Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of post-colonial Nigeria. He greatly influenced his niece’s understanding of anticolonial movements in Africa.