Lorraine%20Hansberry,%20A%20Raisin%20in%20the%20Sun,%20Drama,%20and%20Struggle

1
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Drama,
and Struggle
2
Lorraine Hansberry

• May 19, 1930 January 12, 1965
• African American playwright
• Also an author of political speeches, letters,
  and essays

3
Early Life

• Youngest of four children of Carl Augustus
  Hansberry (a prominent real estate broker) and
  Nannie Louise Perry
• She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the
  Woodlawn neighborhood.

4
Controversial Move

• The family then moved into an all-white
  neighborhood, where they faced
• Segregation in
• Chicago was
• not forced
• but racial tensions
• naturally
• divided the city

5
Supreme Court case of Hansberry versus Lee

• Hansberry's father engaged in a legal battle
  against a racially restrictive covenant that
  attempted to prohibit African-American families
  from buying homes in the area.
• Though victors in the Supreme Court, Hansberry's
  family was subjected to what Hansberry would
  later
• describe as a "hellishly hostile white
  neighborhood."
• This experience later inspired her to write her
  most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun.

6
Later Hansberry

• Finding college to be uninspiring, Hansberry left
  in 1950 to pursue her career as a writer in New
  York City.
• She worked on the staff of a Black newspaper
  called Freedom. It was at this time she wrote A
  Raisin in the Sun.

7
Basics of the Play

• The story is based upon her family's own
  experiences growing up in Chicago's Woodlawn
  neighborhood.
• A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by
  a black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well
  as the first play with a black director (Lloyd
  Richards) on Broadway

8
Social Background

• Published in 1966 , four years after Rosa Parks
  was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to
  a white person on a bus, sparking the Civil
  Rights Movement, Hansberrys play illustrates
  black Americas struggle to gain equal access to
  opportunity and expression of cultural identity.

9
Sentiments in A Raisin will be echoed by MLK in
later speeches, marches, and rallies
Martin Luther King, Jr.Civil-Rights
Leader 1929-1968 I have a dream a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream. I have a dream
that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed We hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men are
created equal.                                   
                                     
10
Importance of the Play

• A Raisin in the Sun can be considered a battle
  for civil rights and drama because it addresses
  so many issues important during the 1950s in the
  United States
• Hansberry creates in the Younger family one of
  the first showings of a black family on an
  American stage

11
Importance of Play, cont.

• She uses black vernacular throughout the play
• Broaches
• important issues
• and conflicts,
• such as poverty,
• discrimination,
• and the
• construction of
• African-American
• racial identity

12
Themes to Look For

• Dreams
• Money
• Family
• Womens Rights
• Racial Tensions and Discrimination
• Assimilation
• Cultural heritage
• Self-Identity and Self-Expression

13
Harlem By Langston Hughes What happens to a
dream deferred?      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?       Or fester
like a sore       And then run?       Does it
stink like rotten meat?       Or crust and sugar
over       like a syrupy sweet?       Maybe
it just sags       like a heavy load.
      Or does it explode?