Scan barcode
A review by kevin_shepherd
Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry by Soyica Diggs Colbert
5.0
“For Hansberry, loss and despair characterized most of her life. She suffered from depression and contemplated suicide. She understood intimately the feeling of being ravaged physically, politically, socially, and personally by impossibility. Nevertheless she believed in the possibility of transformation. Her intimacy with death and the belief in the collective human capacity to transform the world distinguishes her voice and her legacy.” -Soyica Diggs Colbert, 2021
As a famous playwright, Lorraine Hansberry moved in circles that included Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Claudia Jones, James Baldwin and Nina Simone. It was here, amongst her piers, where she received her most meaningful and critical engagement. While the white, liberal media opted to promote her as a “housewife” who “dabbled” in writing, her cadres recognized her enormous talent and held her socially and politically accountable.
Hansberry’s “housewife” reputation ultimately played in her favor. Her writing was widely viewed as non-threatening and the general public opinion of her was overwhelmingly positive, a laudatory reputation that grew almost as fast as her secret FBI file. The Bureau, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, had labeled her a threat and kept her under close surveillance.
Altogether, Lorraine Hansberry was best described as “a black nationalist with a socialist perspective.” Unlike her friend Claudia Jones, who was imprisoned and eventually deported, Lorraine’s celebrity (see: A Raisin in the Sun) served to both insulate her from existent McCarthyism and provide her with a platform for Civil Rights discourse. As a woman who was often underestimated and sometimes overlooked, her collective contributions to black activism, social change, and civil rights can hardly be overstated.
“The problem is, we have to find some way with these dialogues to show and encourage the white liberals to stop being a liberal and become an American radical.” -Lorraine Hansberry, 1964
As a famous playwright, Lorraine Hansberry moved in circles that included Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Claudia Jones, James Baldwin and Nina Simone. It was here, amongst her piers, where she received her most meaningful and critical engagement. While the white, liberal media opted to promote her as a “housewife” who “dabbled” in writing, her cadres recognized her enormous talent and held her socially and politically accountable.
Hansberry’s “housewife” reputation ultimately played in her favor. Her writing was widely viewed as non-threatening and the general public opinion of her was overwhelmingly positive, a laudatory reputation that grew almost as fast as her secret FBI file. The Bureau, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, had labeled her a threat and kept her under close surveillance.
Altogether, Lorraine Hansberry was best described as “a black nationalist with a socialist perspective.” Unlike her friend Claudia Jones, who was imprisoned and eventually deported, Lorraine’s celebrity (see: A Raisin in the Sun) served to both insulate her from existent McCarthyism and provide her with a platform for Civil Rights discourse. As a woman who was often underestimated and sometimes overlooked, her collective contributions to black activism, social change, and civil rights can hardly be overstated.
“The problem is, we have to find some way with these dialogues to show and encourage the white liberals to stop being a liberal and become an American radical.” -Lorraine Hansberry, 1964