Tubbs, Vincent, 71–72
United States Progressive Party, 33–34
United States of America: Carl Hansberry’s disillusionment with, 22, 170; hypocrisy about freedom in, 158; LH’s commitment to, 183; role in Lumumba’s assassination, 153. See also activism, radical; patriotism, uncritical; politics
University of Illinois, Navy Pier campus, 113–14
University of Wisconsin: diaries, journals written at, 31; Frank Lloyd Wright’s lecture at, 31–32; Langdon Manor housing, 27–28; LH’s decision to attend, 26; racial, political tensions at, 28, 32–33; theater studies at, 29–31; World War II veterans at, 32
US presidential election, 1948, 33–34
US State Department: Airlift Africa, 1960, 152–53; criminalization of the Inter-American Peace Conference, 59; revoking passports of Du Bois, Robeson and LH, 56–57, 59
US Supreme Court, Hansberry v. Lee, 17
Veblen, Thorstein, 104
Vietnam War, 172
Village Voice: Cook’s photography for, 91; “Thoughts on Genet, Miller, and the New Paternalism” in, 110
violence: against activists, civil rights workers, 163, 173; against Black women, 13–14; and colonialism, 143, 148; as commonplace in the ghetto, 13–15, 169–170; LH’s childhood experience of, 13–16, 98; police violence, 14–15, 24, 55; and racism, 50, 109, 126. See also the ghetto
Vivaldo (character in Another Country), interracial bisexuality, 128
Vogue magazine, article about LH, 102–3
Waiting for Godot (Beckett), The Arrival of Mr. Todog as answer to, 180
Walker, Alice, 199
Walker, Margaret, 18
Wallace, Henry, 33–34
Wally (character in Sign), on need for action as well as dreams, 175
Walter Lee Younger (character in Raisin): ambitions, yearnings, 97, 104, 139; comparison of with Willie Loman, 105–6; essential dignity of, 105; LH frustration with critics’ misunderstanding of, 106; swindling of, 138
Ward, Douglas Turner, 53, 61, 162
Ward, Theodore, 139
Waverly Place, New York, LH residence at, 94, 199
Wechsler, James, 171, 173
Western intellectualism, postwar, reflections of in Sign, 145
West Side, Chicago, 201
“What Use Are Flowers?” (Hansberry), 132–33
White, Charles, 18
White, Walter, 48
“The White Negro” (Mailer), 109–10
white supremacy: Baldwin’s excoriation of, 125–26; and Black perceptions of whites, 110–11; LH’s writings on, 56, 142–43; and limitations of Southern white writers, 123; whites’ need to accept responsibility for, 142
Whitman, Steve, 4, 6
Wiener, Ed, 82
Wilkerson, Margaret, 7
Williams, Robert, 168
“Willie Loman, Walter Younger, and He Who Must Live” (Hansberry), 105–7
Willy Loman (character in Death of a Salesman), comparison with Walter Lee Younger, 104
Wilson, August, 3, 189, 200
Winters, Shelley, 192–93
Wolfe, Thomas, 70
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 182
women. See feminism; lesbians, lesbianism
Woodlawn Property Owners Association, 16
working class: fighting, resistance by, LH’s admiration for, 3, 9, 61; importance for effecting change, 165; LH’s portrayals of, 14, 113; mischaracterizations of LH as, 51, 104; work in New York on behalf of, 60–61
“Working Class Poets of the Negro People,” 51
Works Progress Administration (WPA): American Negro Exposition, 18; Federal Negro Theater, 53; Negro in Illinois project, 18
World War II, political discussions following, 22, 32–33. See also communism
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 31–32
Wright, Richard: American Negro Exposition, 19; Baldwin’s and LH’s criticisms of, 123–24; fame and influence, 20; LH’s review of The Outsider, 47, 113; mentorship of Baldwin, 123; Negro in Illinois project, 18; social determinism of, 139
Wright Junior College, controversy over Another Country at, 187
writing craft: aesthetics of, appreciation for, 87; anger and rage in, 14; attention to detail, 1, 76–77, 82–83, 98, 113–14; experimentation, 13–14, 54–55, 57, 99; impact of fame on, 95–96; O’Casey’s influence, 30–31; and respect for skill and quality, 44–45, 120, 130; reworking themes in multiple forms, 13–14; self-criticism, 69–71, 95–96, 107, 129; and sense of vocation, mission, 1, 24, 46, 61–62, 76–77, 120, 182; skill at verbal portraiture, 91, 105, 148, 151; struggles with focus, 62, 71–72, 74; synthesis of politics and art, 77; work process, 75. See also Emily Jones (Hansberry pseudonym); specific works
Yerma (Garcia Lorca), 9
You Can’t Go Home Again (Wolfe), 70
“Young, Gifted and Black” (Simone), 6, 197
Young Communist League, 46–47
Young Progressives of America, 33–34
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is also affiliated with the Programs in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Law and Public Affairs. Perry is the author of five books and numerous scholarly articles. Her fields of inquiry include legal history, cultural studies, literary studies, and music. She holds a PhD from Harvard in American Studies, a JD from Harvard Law School, an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA from Yale College. She is also a creative nonfiction essayist and a book reviewer. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Perry spent most of her childhood in Massachusetts, as well as time in Chicago. Perry currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her two sons.
BEACON PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
All rights reserved
Text design and composition by Michael Starkman at Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services
Gwendolyn Brooks, “kitchenette building” from Selected Poems, published by Harper & Row. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.
Richard B. Moore, “For Lorraine Hansberry,” reprinted by permission.
Frontispiece and photo on page 206: David Attie
for Vogue, 1960; reprinted by consent of Eli Attie.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Perry, Imani, author.
Title: Looking for Lorraine : the radiant and radical life of Lorraine Hansberry / Imani Perry.
Description: Boston : Beacon Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017055552 (print) | LCCN 2017058768 (ebook) | ISBN 9780807064504 (ebook) | ISBN 9780807064498 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. | Dramatists, American—20th century—Biography. | African American dramatists—Biography. | African American women civil rights workers—Biography.
Classification: LCC PS3515.A515 (ebook) | LCC PS3515.A515 Z84 2018 (print) |
DDC 812/.54 [B] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055552