“Measure Them Right”: Lorraine Hansberry and the Struggle for Peace

Abstract

Abstract Lorraine Hansberry's concerns about peace issues have been largely neglected in previous scholarship. Absorbing the views of the Communist left of the post-World War II era, particularly those of Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois, and coupling these with her personal abhorrence of war and violence, she expressed a commitment to peace that was evident from the Progressive Party campaign of 1948 until her untimely death in 1965. Her focus on opposing U. S. Cold War policies — including support for European colonialism, the war in Korea, and the buildup of nuclear weapons — was of necessity combined with opposition to McCarthyist measures intended to silence such opposition. Hansberry was not alone in making a long-term commitment to the “fight for peace” (as it was called during the 1948 presidential campaign), and recognizing the way in which she and her contemporaries linked peace and freedom enriches their legacy.