On this day, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City, starring Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil. It became the first Broadway play written by an African-American woman and ran for 530 performances, making it the longest-running Broadway play by an African-American at the time. The play broke new ground by portraying the struggles of a Black family with nuance and dignity, becoming a landmark in American theater and civil rights history.
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