by Imani Perry
Lumumba, Patrice, 153–54
“Lynchsong” (Hansberry), 50
Lyon, Phyllis, 80–81
Lysistrata (Aristophanes), 29
Madame Nielsen (character in Les Blancs), as representative of the revolutionary moment, 143–44
Madison, Wisconsin, LH reflections on, 45–46. See also University of Wisconsin
Mailer, Norman, 109–12
The Making of Black Revolutionaries (Forman), 21–22
Malcolm X: Airlift Africa, 1960, 152; assassination, 196; “by any means necessary” speech, 169; at LH’s funeral, 196
“Male Prison” (Baldwin), 129
male voice, LH’s use of, 140–41, 144
March on Washington for Jobs and Justice, 1963, 177–78
marriage: Chicago Defender article on, 63; complexity of, ambivalence about, 69–70; divorce, 181; and execution of the Rosenbergs, 64; LH’s employment following, 65. See also Nemiroff, Robert
Marshall, Burke: at 1963 meeting with RFK, 163; efforts to get Smith and the freedom riders to stop their protests, 166
Marshall, Paule, 171
Martaslund (Hansberry), 182
Martin, Del, 80–81
Martin, Helen, 53
Martin, Vince, 74
Martin Weiner Distinguished Lecture (Brandeis University)
Masses and Mainstream (magazine): “Flag from a Kitchenette Window,” 44; “Lynchsong,” 50
Mau Mau, 66
Mavis (character in Sign): racism shown by, 146–47; view of father, 146
Mayfield, Julian, 155–56, 162
McCarran Act, 67–68
McComb, Mississippi, Smith’s beating in, 163, 166
McCullers, Carson, 123
McGee, Willie, 48, 50
Medina, Harold, 34–35
Mekas, Jonas, 110
Melville, Herman: Pip in Moby Dick, 194; sense of vocation, 76–77
Merida, Carlos, 37
Merriam, Eve, 184
“Metamorphasis [sic]” (Hansberry), 156
Mexico: Ajijic experience, 35–40; Chapultepec Conference, 39; Carl Hansberry’s death in, 22; relocation of Blacks to, 22
middle class. See Black middle class
migrants from the South: Ellison’s disparagement of, 54–55, experience of, 10, 16; as the Great Migration, 139. See also the ghetto
Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 194
Miller, Ann, 27
Miller, Arthur, 105, 106
Miller, Monica, 7
Mirine Tige (character “Chanson Du Konallis”), and portrayal of lost love, 89–90
“Mississippi Goddam” (Simone), 172
mob violence. See violence
Moby Dick (Melville), 194
Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, 73
Moore, Richard B., 188
Moore, Thomas, 196
Moreno, Rita, 195
Mother, May I game, 10–11
Mother Courage and Her Children (Brecht), 133
Mount Airy section, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, 176 The Movement (Baldwin and Hansberry), 167
Mr. Rector (fictional character), sadness, impotence of, 15
Muhammad Speaks (newspaper), Leaks’s obituary for LH, 192; LH’s tribute to Du Bois, 180
Murphy, George B., 47
Museum of Natural History, New York City, racist depictions of Blacks, 151
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): expulsion of Du Bois from, 66–67; and Hansberry v. Lee, 12–13; and representation of Blacks in the media, 48; representative from, at LH’s funeral, 67; separation from the radical left, 67, 155, 160
National Negro Commission, 21
National Negro Congress, 47
National Review, obituary for LH, 190
Nation of Islam, 159–60
“The Nation Needs Your Gifts” (Hansberry), 197
Native Son (Wright), 20, 123–25
nature, out-of-doors. See beauty; nature
“The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (Hughes), 100
“Negro History in Poetry and Prose” presentation (Hansberry), 53
“Negro in Illinois” project (WPA), 18
Nemiroff, Leo, 192–93
Nemiroff, Robert (Bobby): appreciation for LH’s genius, 72; “Bob Rolfe” pseudonym, 65; “Cindy, Oh Cindy,” 74; divorce from LH, 181, 183; friendship with D’Lugoff, 72; first meeting with LH, 60; hiding of LH’s cancer diagnosis from, 178; letter from Edythe Cohen to, 41; LH letter to, about Camp Unity, 69; letter to, about Provincetown art opening, 82; LH letter to, about their differences, 59; LH letter to, complaining about Tubbs, 71; LH letter to, declaring her love, 61–62; letter to, complaining about Chicago 74; mother, LH’s affection for, 65; promotional work for Avon Books, 73–74; as protector of LH’s life and legacy, 59, 61–62, 72, 84, 92, 131, 197–98; pseudonymous songwriting, 73–74; vigil at LH’s deathbed, 187; wedding to LH, 63–64
New Challenge Magazine (Labor Youth League), 65
New School for Social Research, New York, 43
New York City: Black theater world, 53; LH’s early poems written in, 44; move and returns to, 42, 72. See also Greenwich Village, New York; Harlem, New York; theater
New Yorker (magazine), 75
New York Post, LH letter praising Dufty, 114
New York Times: criticisms of CORE “Stall In,” 170; LH article on radical activism, 170; LH article on Sidney, 145; LH letter about Lumumba assassination, 154; Skirvanek letter about LH, 199; “Stanley Gleason and the Lights That Need Not Die,” 150–51; “Willie Loman, Walter Younger, and He Who Must Live,” 105
New York University, protest of racial discrimination, 60
New York World-Telegram, “Slum Play Author Sued as Slumlord,” 137
Nkrumah, Kwama, 48
nonviolence. See activism, radical; civil rights movement
Nottage, Lynn, 189
O’Casey, Sean, 29–30, 104
Oliver, Mary, 91–93
ONE (homophile publication), “The Anticipation of Eve” in, 84–86
Organization of African American Unity, 169
The Outsider (Wright), 47, 113
Painter, Mary, 27
Pan-Africanism: and the Black diaspora, 65–66; Du Bois’s, 179; LH’s, 153–54, 159
Parker, Theodore, 168–69
Parks, Gordon, 99
Parks, Suzan Lori, 189
passport revocations, 56–57, 59
paternal legacy, inheritance: as theme in Les Blancs, 141, 143; as theme in Raisin, 139–41; as theme in Sign, 144, 146–49
paternalism, paternalists: complexity of, for LH, 139; LH’s characterizations of Beat writers as, 110–11
paternal legacy: reflections of, in Sign, 144; as theme throughout Sign, 146–49
patriarchy: and Alton’s character in Sign as reflection of, 146–47; and Beat writers, 110–11; questioning of, 118; in “What Use Are Flowers?,” 133
patriotism, uncritical: Carl Hansberry’s, 22, 170; LH’s rejection of after father’s death, 22–23; Vincent Tubbs’s, 71; at the University of Wisconsin, 32
Paul Whitside (character in “Chanson Du Konallis”), sexual appetites, 90
Pendleton, Larry, 188
People’s Rights Party, 50–51
Perry grandmother, childhood visit to, in Tennessee, 16
personality, force of, 28–29, 34, 162–65
Philadelphia, PA, tryouts for Raisin in, 97
physical appearance: beauty, 3, 28, 102; FBI description, 102; photographs, 2, 63, 91, 99, 102–32
Pip (character in both Moby Dick and “Renascence”), 194
“Pirate Jenny” (Brecht), Simone’s version, 132
Poitier, Sidney: and the American Negro Theater, 53; in cast of Raisin, 97; LH’s views on, 115; as narrator for Freedom Negro History Festival pageant, 53
police racism, LH’s portrayal of, 15
police violence, depictions of, 14–15, 24, 55
politics, political views: evolution of, 12, 21, 44, 81; Carl H
ansberry’s, 170; holistic perspective, 77–78, 91, 100, 130; integrating with art, 107–9, 115–16; LH’s commitment to racial justice, 24, 47, 49, 129; LH’s, compared with Baldwin’s, 125; and LH’s connection with Simone, 131–31; LH’s increasing militancy, 126, 150, 159, 169–73; and LH’s sense of purpose and responsibility, 21, 134, 168, 170, 179, 190. See also activism, radical; Black radical traditions; communism; liberation, freedom
“Pomp and Circumstance,” 21
Poston, Ted, 103
Potpourri (Nemiroff family restaurant), 65, 72
Powell, James, 173
Price, Leontyne, 161
private papers and writings of LH, publication of, 198
the professor (character in “What Use Are Flowers?”), as symbol of the patriarchy, 133
Provident Hospital, Chicago, 9
Provincetown, Massachusetts: as bohemian enclave, 200; Cook’s photographs of LH, 91; description of first visit to, 82
Publicists Guild of America, 71
racial justice, importance, 24, 47, 49, 149
racism: anger, rage as response to, 14–15, 56; apartheid, 67; and the challenges facing Black artists, 106–7; childhood lessons, 12; Childress’s indictment of, 73; in critical assessments of LH and Raisin, 103–4; global/holistic perspectives, 77–78, 88, 129, 145, 160; Carl Hansberry’s bitterness and pessimism about, 22; and LH friendship with JoAnn Beier, 33; lynch-law and Jim Crow courts, 50; resistance to through writings, 23–24, 118–19, 146–47; and the “romantic racism” of the Beats, 110; as structural and need for radical change, 173. See also activism, radical; Black radical traditions; the ghetto; segregation
“radical,” as term of praise, 150
A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry): autobiography and memory in, 13, 98, 137–38; awards and honors, 1, 98; as both conventional and radical, 100–102; Broadway production, 97–98; criticisms of as racist, 102–6; critical evaluations, 100, 104, 198–99, 112–14; early draft, 92; enduring fame and popularity, 1, 99, 100–104, 198; faithful depictions of characters’ dreams and aspirations, 98–99, 139–40; FBI investigation triggered by, 99; film version, 114–15, 158; LH’s response to misunderstanding of, by critiques, 113–14; LH’s views on weaknesses of, 106; Marxist and radical influences, 104; plot, 97; presentation of diversity of Black Americans, 140; tryouts for, 93, 97, 119
rat metaphor, 124
real estate, and the fight over integration, 13
realism, O’Casey’s artistic model, 30–31
religion, rules of, questioning of, 118
“Renascence” (Hansberry), as story of loneliness and grieving, 194
“Renascence” (Millay), 195
Reporter (magazine), LH’s letter to supporting Kenyatta, 65–66
Republican Party, Hansberry family affiliation with, 11
restlessness, distractibility, LH’s, 52, 62, 68–69, 99, 137, 181–82
the revolutionary moment, 143–44
Rhodes Avenue, Chicago: Carl Hansberry’s purchase of property at 6140, 12; eviction of Hansberry family from property at 6140, 12–13, 16–17; Hansberry v. Lee, 17; mob violence against the Hansberry family, 13–14, 98
Richards, Lloyd, 97, 120
“The Riot” (Hansberry), portrayal of Black resistance in, 24
Rivera, Diego, 37
River George (Lee), 21
Robeson, Eslanda Goode, tribute at Du Bois memorial, 178
Robeson, Paul: and the Communist Party, 57, 68; eulogy at LH’s funeral, 191; passport revocation, impacts, 56, 67; as publisher, editorial-writer of Freedom, 47; taped greeting to delegates at the Inter-American Peace Conference, 58
Rochester (character on the Jack Benny Show), as racial stereotype, 156
Roosevelt University, Chicago, 42
Rose, Philip, 92, 97, 107
Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel, 63–64
Rougeau, Weldon, 184
Rowe, Izzy, 7
Rufus Scott (character in Another Country), interracial romance, 128
Russak, Mary, 57
Ruth Younger (character in Raisin): desire for own home, 97, 139–41; quietness, silence of, 141
Said, Edward, 175, 181–82
Sands, Diana, 195
Sanford, Isabel, 53
Sarah (fictional character), in LH’s story about childhood trauma, 16–17
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 95, 145, 170
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem, New York, LH’s papers at, 7, 198
Schwerner, Michael “Mickey,” 173
The Second Sex (de Beauvoir), 75, 77–78, 86
Secules, Dorothy: care of LH during illness, 182; love affair with LH, 83, 93–95; as pallbearer at LH’s funeral, 195; residence at 112 Waverly Place, 94; vigil at LH’s deathbed, 187
segregation: continuation of, in Chicago, 201; and Jim Crow laws in the South, 12, 17, 50, 167–68; sustaining through ghettoization, 160, 167; and violent responses to integration, 13. See also racism
self-criticism, self-exploration, 69–71, 95–96, 107, 129
Selma, Alabama, Edmund Pettus Bridge march, 197
sexuality, sex: ambiguities about, 79; and LH’s love for women, 79–80. See also lesbians, lesbianism
Shagaloff, June, 163
Sidney Brustein (character in Sign): as failed radical, 144; paternalism and sexism of, 134, 146
Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (Strain, documentary), 7
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Hansberry): Broadway opening, closing, 186–87; comparison with Another Country, 128–29; focus on a father’s legacy in, 144; LH article about, 145; on need for action as well as dreams, 175; portrayal of countercultural politics, 145; portrayal of sexism, 134; reviews, criticisms of, 144–45
Signoret, Simone, 131
Silberman, Charles, 171, 173
“Simone,” as a name, 131
Simone, Nina: “Blackbird,” 134; creative discipline, musical brilliance of, 131–34; depression and rage after LH’s death, 196–97; friendship with LH, 117–18; “I Loves You Porgy,” 129, 132; “In the Evening by the Moonlight,” 186–87, 192; LH as godmother to daughter, 130; on LH’s influence, 129–30; loneliness of, 134–35; “Mississippi Goddam,” 172; musical background and style, 131; “Pirate Jenny,” 132; political awakening, 129, 132; post-movement life, death, 135; “Sinnerman,” 105; songs and eulogy at LH’s funeral, 192; struggles around sexuality, 131; visit with the dying LH, 186; “Young, Gifted, and Black,” 197
Simple Speaks His Mind (Hughes), Childress’s dramatic adaptation of, 73
“Sinnerman” spiritual (Simone), 105
Siqueiros, David Alfaro, 157
Six Degrees of Separation (Guare), 200
Skirvanek, Camille, 199
slave rebellions, white reactions to, 170
slavery: and Black female adornment with, 87; escape from by LH’s grandfather, 16; impact on Black American perspectives, 172–73; slave rebellions, white fears about, 170
slum landlord accusations, impact on LH, 137–38
“Slum Play Author Sued as Slumlord” (New York World–Telegram), 137
smile, laugh, LH’s, 103, 107, 121, 135, 164, 183, 188, 192
Smith, Anna Deavere, 189
Smith, Gene, 120
Smith, Jerome, 163–66
Smith, Judith, 6
Smith, Lillian, 20–21
social criticism. See critical essays on art and politics
“social dramatist” label, 108–9
socialism, LH’s ongoing belief in, 150. See also communism; politics, political views
Social Security, exclusion of domestic workers from, 113
Son (character in All the Dark and Beautiful Warriors), as answer to Wright’s Bigger Thomas, 124
The Songs of Bilitis (Louys), 80
the South: and Jim Crow laws, violence against Blacks, 12, 17, 50, 163, 167–68; LH’s rootedness in, 16; and limitations of Southern white writers, 123; reflection of, in Simone’s music, 131; as symbol of struggles past and to come, 16
South Side, Chicago: depiction of, in Raisin, 97, 101, 137; Hansberry family in, 28, 104, 115; LH’s childhood and youth in, 9–26; LH’s return visits to, 84; Wright’s description, 20
Spartacus (Fast), 47
Spectator, 192
Spingarn, Arthur, 178
Spottswood, Stephen Gill, 178
stagecraft, staging, LH’s natural skill at, 91–92
“Stanley Gleason and the Lights That Need Not Die” (Hansberry), 151
Starborin, Joseph, 82
station wagon, purchase of, for CORE, 167, 173
Strain, Tracy, 7
Strange Fruit (Smith), 20–21
A Street in Bronzeville (Brooks), 44
Stroud, Andrew (Andy), 130–31
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 161, 167–68. See also activism, radical
Supreme Liberty Life Insurance, 12, 113
Susskind, David, 115, 171
Swarthmore College, LH lecture at, 108
“Sweet Lorraine,” 119, 121
Tallmer, Jeremy, 190
tendonitis, 181
Tennessee, visit to grandmother in, 16
Terkel, Studs, 117
theater: American Negro Theater, 53; Childress’s refusal to change Trouble in Mind, 73; Federal Negro Theater, 53; John Brown Community Theatre prospectus, 115–16; LH’s influence on, 200; O’Casey’s influence, 29–30, 104; opening of Raisin on Broadway, 97; opening of Sign on Broadway, 186; skill at staging, stagecraft, 91; studies at the University of Wisconsin, 28–29
Theory of the Leisure Class (Veblen), 104
Thompson, Daniel, 160
Thoreau, Henry David, 176
“Thoughts on Genet, Miller, and the New Paternalism” (Hansberry), 110
Till, Emmett, 73
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (Hansberry and Nemiroff), 5, 6–7, 24, 197
“To Lorraine” (Pendleton), 188
Tolson, Melvin, 19
Toomer, Jean, 89
Torn, Rip, 163
Torres, Angel, 57
toughness, admiration for, 19–20, 201
trauma, LH’s repeating of in fiction, 14–15
trauma, childhood: LH’s recreations of 16; story about, 16
Trouble in Mind (Childress), 73
Truman, Harry, 33–34
Tshembe (character in Les Blancs), and debates about revolution, 141–43
Tshombe, Moise, 156
Tubbs, Mamie Hansberry, 12–13, 71–72
