Lorraine Vivian Hansberry

Death

Hansberry, a heavy smoker her whole life, died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965, aged 34. James Baldwin believed “it is not at all farfetched to suspect that what she saw contributed to the strain which killed her, for the effort to which Lorraine was dedicated is more than enough to kill a man.”

Hansberry’s funeral was held in Harlem on January 15, 1965. Paul Robeson and SNCC organizer James Forman gave eulogies. The presiding minister, Eugene Callender, recited messages from Baldwin and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. which read: “Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.” The 15th was also Dr. King’s birthday. She is buried at Asbury United Methodist Church Cemetery in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Posthumous works

Hansberry’s ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, became the executor for several unfinished manuscripts. He added minor changes to complete the play Les Blancs, which Julius Lester termed her best work, and he adapted many of her writings into the play To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which was the longest-running Off-Broadway play of the 1968–69 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. She left behind an unfinished novel and several other plays, including The Drinking Gourd and What Use Are Flowers? with a range of content, from slavery to a post-apocalyptic future.

Hansberry Bio

Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project – The Documentary
by Tracy Heather Strain

 

 

 

In May 2022, a statue of Hansberry titled “Just Sit a While and Think,” was unveiled in Times Square by the Lilly Awards Foundation to honor the playwright and civil rights leader while investing in those following her lead.

https://lorrainehansberryinitiative.org

The statue, a depiction of Hansberry sitting on a tree stump with five empty seats, inviting people to join her, is inspired by a line in her play Raisin in the Sun – “Don’t get up. Just sit a while and think. Never be afraid to sit a while and think.” The statue is on a tour of the United States and can currently be seen at Howard University in Washington D.C., with its final stop and permanent installation to be Chicago, her home town.