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The Negro people are a great people—they need a great newspaper. Read Freedom, Paul Robeson’s newspaper—a scribble from one of Lorraine Hansberry’s notebooks. As Associate Editor of Paul Robeson’s monthly, Freedom, Lorraine played an active role in the black freedom movements of the early 1950s.
The Negro people are a great people—they need a great newspaper. Read Freedom, Paul Robeson’s newspaper. 
Self-portrait with typewriter ink on paper, date unknown. Lorraine enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in February 1949, where she took art classes. During the summer of 1949, Lorraine studied painting at the University of Guadalajara art workshop in Ajijic, Mexico and during the summer of 1950 she studied art at Roosevelt University.
Self-portrait with typewriter ink on paper, date unknown. 
To Wish You All—Peace, pen & ink self-portrait by Hansberry. Also named A Portrait of the Artist As Young Woman Contemplating Christmas, signed on the left shoulder of the self-portrait is Hansberry—The Deep One—1952.
"To Wish You All Peace," pen & ink self-portrait by Hansberry. 
Drawing of flowers by Lorraine while a college student, between 1948 and 1950. Lorraine enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she took art classes, but during the summer of 1949 she studied painting at the University of Guadalajara art workshop in Ajijic, Mexico and studied art at Roosevelt University during the summer of 1950.
Drawing of flowers by Lorraine while a college student, between 1948 and 1950. 
Lorraine Hansberry at her home at 337 Bleeker Street, reading letter on couch. Photo by Gin Briggs. Gin Briggs was a staff photographer for the Village Voice. Briggs had a small storefront studio on Christopher Street around the corner from Hansberry. They became great friends, with Briggs shooting several professional and personal photo essays of Hansberry.
Lorraine Hansberry at home reading letter on couch. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at home playing guitar. Photo by Gin Briggs. Gin Briggs was a staff photogtapher for the Village Voice. Briggs had a small storefront studio on Christopher Street and lived upstairs from Hansberry. They became great friends, with Briggs shooting several commercial and personal photo essays of Hansberry.
Lorraine Hansberry at home playing guitar. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry relaxing at home. Photo by Gin Briggs. Gin Briggs was a staff photographer for the Village Voice. Briggs had a small storefront studio on Christopher Street and lived upstairs from Hansberry. They became great friends, with Briggs shooting several commercial and personal photo essays of Hansberry.
Lorraine Hansberry relaxing at home. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at home on phone. Photo by Gin Briggs. Gin Briggs was a staff photographer for the Village Voice. She had a small storefront studio on Christopher Street and lived upstairs from Hansberry. They became great friends, with Briggs shooting several commercial and personal photo essays of Hansberry.
Lorraine Hansberry at home on phone. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at home playing guitar. Photo by Gin Briggs. Gin Briggs was a staff photographer for the Village Voice. She had a small storefront studio on Christopher Street and lived upstairs from Hansberry. They became great friends, with Briggs shooting several commercial and personal photo essays of Hansberry.
Lorraine Hansberry at home playing guitar. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Award, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. The Village Voice initiated the annual off-Broadway Awards—the Obies—at the end of the 1955–1956 season.
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Award, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at her desk at Freedom magazine, 1952. Photographer unknown. From 1951–1953, Hansberry worked in Harlem at the weekly black newspaper, Freedom, founded by Paul Robeson and Louis E. Burnham. In December 1952, she became associate editor, working closely with Louis E. Burnham, who would become her mentor, as well as with fellow staffer Alice Childress and W. E. B. DuBois, John O. Killens, and Julian Mayfield.
Lorraine Hansberry at her desk at Freedom magazine, 1952. Photographer unknown. 
Lorraine Hansberry speaking at “Village Rallies for NAACP” in Washington Square Park, NYC, June 13, 1959. Photographer unknown. Hansberry was the co-chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Life Membership Committee. The rally was to increase membership, raise funds, and to start a Greenwich Village NAACP branch.
Lorraine Hansberry speaking at “Village Rallies for NAACP,” in Washington Square Park, NYC, June 13, 1959. Photographer unknown. 
Lorraine Hansberry at the Taft Hotel two days before the out-of town tryouts for A Raisin in the Sun, opened in New Haven, Connecticut at the Schubert Theater. January 19, 1959. Photographer unknown. The play ran for four nights in New Haven and would go on to positive reviews in Philadelphia and Chicago before opening on Broadway at the Barrymore Theater on March 11, 1959.
Lorraine Hansberry at the Taft Hotel two days before the out-of town tryouts for A Raisin in the Sun, opened in New Haven, Connecticut at the Schubert Theater. January 19, 1959. Photographer unknown. 
Lorraine Hansberry in front of academic building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hansberry attended Madison from 1948–1950, first as an art education major and then studied drama and journalism before, as she says, moving to New York for “an education of another kind.”
Lorraine Hansberry in front of academic building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. As reported in the New York Age on January 16, 1960, performers included musicians Clarice Crawford, Josh White, Larry Adler, and Robert Rousneville, and dancers Leon James, Al Minns, and the Nigerian Dance Company. The Africa Defense and Aid Fund provided funds for legal and family welfare emergencies resulting from efforts to achieve democratic rights in African territories. Sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. James A. Pike, Jackie Robinson, Jacob Javits, Martin Luther King, Jr., Emily Kimbrough, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Reinhold Neibuhr, Tom Nboya of Kenya,and the Archibishop of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Gin Briggs
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. 
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. As reported in the New York Age on January 16, 1960, performers included musicians Clarice Crawford, Josh White, Larry Adler, and Robert Rousneville, and dancers Leon James, Al Minns, and the Nigerian Dance Company. The Africa Defense and Aid Fund provided funds for legal and family welfare emergencies resulting from efforts to achieve democratic rights in African territories. Sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. James A. Pike, Jackie Robinson, Jacob Javits, Martin Luther King, Jr., Emily Kimbrough, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Reinhold Neibuhr, Tom Nboya of Kenya,and the Archibishop of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Gin Briggs
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. 
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. As reported in the New York Age on January 16, 1960, performers included musicians Clarice Crawford, Josh White, Larry Adler, and Robert Rousneville, and dancers Leon James, Al Minns, and the Nigerian Dance Company. The Africa Defense and Aid Fund provided funds for legal and family welfare emergencies resulting from efforts to achieve democratic rights in African territories. Sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. James A. Pike, Jackie Robinson, Jacob Javits, Martin Luther King, Jr., Emily Kimbrough, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Reinhold Neibuhr, Tom Nboya of Kenya,and the Archibishop of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Gin Briggs.
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. 
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. As reported in the New York Age on January 16, 1960, performers included musicians Clarice Crawford, Josh White, Larry Adler, and Robert Rousneville, and dancers Leon James, Al Minns, and the Nigerian Dance Company. The Africa Defense and Aid Fund provided funds for legal and family welfare emergencies resulting from efforts to achieve democratic rights in African territories. Sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. James A. Pike, Jackie Robinson, Jacob Javits, Martin Luther King, Jr., Emily Kimbrough, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Reinhold Neibuhr, Tom Nboya of Kenya,and the Archibishop of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Gin Briggs.
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. 
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. Photo by Gin Briggs. As reported in the New York Age on January 16, 1960, performers included musicians Clarice Crawford, Josh White, Larry Adler, and Robert Rousneville, and dancers Leon James, Al Minns, and the Nigerian Dance Company. The Africa Defense and Aid Fund provided funds for legal and family welfare emergencies resulting from efforts to achieve democratic rights in African territories. Sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, Rev. James A. Pike, Jackie Robinson, Jacob Javits, Martin Luther King, Jr., Emily Kimbrough, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Reinhold Neibuhr, Tom Nboya of Kenya, and the Archibishop of Cape Town, South Africa.
Lorraine Hansberry, greeting the audience at the “Africa at the Gate” event to benefit the Africa Defense and Aid Fund, American Committee on Africa. Village Gate nightclub, NYC, January 20, 1960. 
Lorraine Hansberry downing a pint of ice cream in her hospital bed in 1963. At the time of her death, Hansberry had been working on The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, which opened on October 15, 1964 at the Longacre theater. The show then moved to Henry Miller’s Theatre on December 22 and closed—after 101 performances and an audience totaling over 80,000 on the day Hansberry died: January 12, 1965.
Lorraine Hansberry downing a pint of ice cream in her hospital bed in 1963. 
Passport photo of Lorraine Hansberry Nemiroff. On March 12, 1982, Robert Nemiroff made a Freedom of Information Act Request for the return of Hansberry’s original passport and photographs.
Passport photo of Lorraine Hansberry Nemiroff. 
Passport photo of Lorraine Vivian Hansberry. On March 12, 1982, Robert Nemiroff made a Freedom of Information Act Request for the return of Hansberry’s original passport and photographs.
Passport photo of Lorraine Vivian Hansberry. 
Passport of Lorraine Hansberry, stamped with entry to the Republica del Uruguay on March 21, 1952 (return March 27), where Hansberry was one of 250 delegates and delivered a speech on behalf of Paul Robeson at the American Continental Congress of Peace Partisans in Montevideo. Hansberry traveled as a writer for the African American weekly, Freedom, as Robeson was banned from international travel by the US State Department. Robeson’s passport had been confiscated by the US State Department because of his communism and Hansberry’s would be confiscated upon her return. In 1982, Robert Nemiroff would make a Freedom of Information Act Request for the return of Hansberry’s original passport.
Passport of Lorraine Hansberry, stamped with entry to the Republica del Uruguay on March 21, 1952 (return March 27), where Hansberry was one of 250 delegates and delivered a speech on behalf of Paul Robeson at the American Continental Congress of Peace Partisans in Montevideo. 
Louis E. Burnham, Editor, on the phone at his desk at Freedom magazine, 1952. Photographer unknown. From 1951–1953, Hansberry worked in Harlem at the weekly black newspaper, Freedom, founded by Burnham and Paul Robeson. At the newspaper, Hansberry wrote book reviews, theater criticism, and social analyses as well as news articles and editorials. She soon became associate editor, working closely with Burnham, who became her mentor.
Louis E. Burnham, Editor, on the phone at his desk at Freedom magazine, 1952. Photographer unknown. 
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.
Photo portrait of historian and anthropologist, William Leo Hansberry (1894–1965), the brother of Carl Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry’s father. 
Lorraine Hansberry and Robert Nemiroff at “Village Rallies for NAACP,” in Washington Square Park, June 13, 1959. Photographer unknown. Hansberry was the co-chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Life Membership Committee. The rally was to increase membership, raise funds, and to start a Greenwich Village NAACP branch.
Lorraine Hansberry and Robert Nemiroff at “Village Rallies for NAACP,” in Washington Square Park, June 13, 1959. Photographer unknown. 
Lorraine Hansberry with actress Kim Stanley at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards at the Village Gate, NYC. May 25, 1959. Photo by Gin Briggs. The Village Voice initiated the annual off-Broadway Awards—the Obies—at the end of the 1955–1956 season. In 1959, Kim Stanley presented the awards on behalf of The Voice.
Lorraine Hansberry with actress Kim Stanley at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards at the Village Gate, NYC. May 25, 1959. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry greeted by actress Kim Stanley at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. The Village Voice initiated the annual off-Broadway Awards—the Obies—at the end of the 1955–1956 season. In 1959, Kim Stanley presented the awards on behalf of the Voice.
Lorraine Hansberry greeted by actress Kim Stanley at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. The Village Voice initiated the annual off-Broadway Awards—the Obies—at the end of the 1955–1956 season.
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. 
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs. The Village Voice initiated the annual off-Broadway Awards—the Obies—at the end of the 1955–1956 season.
Lorraine Hansberry at the Fourth Annual Obie Awards, May 25, 1959 at the Village Gate, NYC. Photo by Gin Briggs.