# Carl A. Hansberry

Developed real estate in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood from the 1930s onward, purchasing properties subject to racially restrictive covenants in order to challenge their enforceability and expand housing access for Black Chicagoans. His purchase of a property at 6140 South Rhodes Avenue in 1937 triggered Hansberry v. Lee, a case that reached the United States Supreme Court; in 1940, the Court ruled in Hansberry's favor (311 U.S. 32) on procedural grounds, allowing him and other Black families to remain in the neighborhood. The legal campaign preceded the Supreme Court's outright invalidation of restrictive covenants in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) by eight years. Also operated a mail-order business before his real estate career. He died in Mexico City in March 1946. His daughter Lorraine Hansberry drew on the family's experience for her 1959 play 'A Raisin in the Sun'.

- Region: 773
- Affiliation: Hansberry Real Estate
- Industry: Real Estate Development
- URL: https://xecon.dev/773/profiles/people/carl-a-hansberry
- Updated: 2026-05-27

## Sources

1. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Augustus_Hansberry)
2. [Chicagosouthsider](https://chicagosouthsider.com/from-segregation-to-integration-how-lorraine-hansberrys-father-used-real-estate-to-transform-chicagos-south-side/)
3. [Archives](https://www.archives.gov/chicago/finding-aids/civil-rights-movement.html)