Carl Augustus Hansberry (April 30, 1895 – March 17, 1946) was an American

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

broker A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

, and was plaintiff in the 1940 Supreme Court decision ''

Hansberry v. Lee __NOTOC__ ''Hansberry v. Lee'', 311 U.S. 32 (1940), is a famous and commonly-used case in civil procedure classes for teaching that ''res judicata'' does not apply to an individual whose interests were not adequately represented in a prior class ac ...

''. He was also the father of award-winning

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin in the Sun'', highlig ...

and the great-grandfather of

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

Taye Hansberry.

Life and career

Carl Augustus Hansberry was born on April 30, 1895 in Gloster, Amite County, Mississippi. He was a son of Elden Hayes and Pauline (Bailey) Hansberry. He and his older brother, William Leo Hansberry, were raised by their stepfather, Elijah Washington. As a young man, he moved to Chicago, as part of the Great Migration. He married Nannie Louise Perry of Columbia,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, the daughter of George Perry, a minister, and his wife, Charlotte "Lottie" Organ. Together Carl and Nannie had four children: *Carl Augustus Hansberry, Jr. (February 19, 1920 – January 12, 1997)Social Security Death Index *Perry Holloway Hansberry (June 4, 1921 – December 18, 2002) *Mamie Louise Hansberry (born April 2, 1923), former wife of journalist Vincent Tubbs and grandmother of actress Taye Hansberry * Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965)Carter, Stephen R. "Commitment amid Complexity: Lorraine Hansberry's Life in Action." MELUS 7(3), Autumn 1980. Accessed 25 December 2013 When his youngest child was eight, Hansberry bought a house in the

Washington Park Subdivision The Washington Park Subdivision is the name of the historic 3-city block by 4-city block subdivision in the northwest corner of the Woodlawn community area, on the South Side of Chicago in Illinois that stands in the place of the original W ...

of Chicago that was restricted to whites. The family was met with intense hostility by local residents. The Kenwood Improvement Association filed a mandatory

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

for the Hansberry family to vacate their home which was granted by a Circuit Court judge and upheld on appeal by the

Illinois Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...

. Hansberry challenged the ruling, which led to the landmark U. S. Supreme Court case ''

'' (1940). In a unanimous opinion rendered November 12, 1940, the court rejected the specific

restrictive covenant A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a se ...

impacting the Hansberry family without ruling on the constitutionality of restrictive residential covenants in general. In 1940, Hansberry made an unsuccessful bid for Congress. In the wake of that loss and frustrated by the pervasive

racism in the United States Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and ...

, he made plans to move his family to Mexico. While visiting Mexico, Hansberry suffered a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

and died there on March 17, 1946. He is buried at the

Burr Oak Cemetery Burr Oak Cemetery is a cemetery located in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1927, Burr Oak was one of the few early Chicago cemeteries focused on the needs of the African-American community, ...

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

. The family's experience with racial segregation would serve as the inspiration for his daughter Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning play, ''

A Raisin in the Sun ''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chi ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansberry, Carl Augustus 1895 births 1946 deaths People from Gloster, Mississippi American activists People from Chicago People from Cook County, Illinois Burials at Burr Oak Cemetery