Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun Background

The Great Migration Before WWI -- most African Americans lived in the South, descendants of slaves Living conditions in the South were terrible for a variety of reasons Many moved to Chicago South side had many factories for jobs Became heavily populated by African Americans, nicknamed “Bronzeville”

Chicago AFTER the Great Migration Because of the rapidly growing population of Chicago's south side, it soon became overcrowded and the struggle to find a place to live increased. The city came up with some public housing projects to provide low-income housing to people strictly in the black ghettos. Due to restrictive covenants, Blacks were soon cut off from all the higher paying jobs and weren't able to live in white neighborhoods anymore without fear from violence or death. https://prezi.com/b4wy3u-6itft/segregation-in-chicago-during-the-1950s-1960s/

Housing as a Result of the Influx "Closed in by white neighborhoods, Bronzeville quickly grew overcrowded. One-family apartments were split into three tiny 'kitchenettes.' Everyone went down the hall to use the toilet — if the plumbing worked. Owners did not have to repair their buildings because city inspectors could be bribed. And no one stopped them from raising the rents." - Robert Fanuzzi

History Brief video (1:30) Restrictive covenants barred property owners from leasing or selling to African Americans, which led to Redlining. This created and continued segregation.

Lorraine Hansberry Playwright, author, activist. Granddaughter of a freed slave. Youngest of four children Born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. (1:30)

In 1938 her family moved to a white neighborhood and were violently attacked by their neighbors. They refused to move until a court ordered them to do so, and their case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the restrictive covenant in the area the family lived was illegal in that it wasn’t supported by the entire neighborhood (54% supported it and 46% did not).

So the court neither ruled for or against the Hansberry family, and they were forced to leave their home. Restrictive covenant--is a clause in a deed or lease to real property that limits what the owner of the land or lease can do with the property.

The ‘40s As late as 1940, all but three Chicago neighborhoods had white majority populations. The exceptions were Douglas, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park, the heart of what was known as the Black Belt, the South Side ghetto to which African-Americans were confined. https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/White-Flight-By-The-Numbers-206302551.html

Redlining In the United States, redlining is the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas.

The ‘40s & ‘50s After World War II, whites began moving to the suburbs, and the restrictive covenants that had prohibited blacks from living in most neighborhoods were struck down by the courts. Redlining began and contributed to continuing segregation in Chicago (and other cities). By 1950, the Black Belt had expanded to Douglas, the Near South Side and Fuller Park. By 1980, it was no longer a belt. It was a crescent encompassing most of the city’s West and South sides, from Madison and Central to 135th and State. https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/White-Flight-By-The-Numbers-206302551.html

The ‘50s The expanded Black Belt was not integration. As the old saying goes, “Integration is the period between the arrival of the first black and the departure of the last white.” This was total ethnic succession. In one generation, a third of the city’s community areas went from monolithically white to monolithically black. https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/White-Flight-By-The-Numbers-206302551.html

Hansberry’s parents addressed racism through supporting integration efforts. They sent Lorraine to public school, rather than private ones that they could afford to support integration efforts. Moving to a white neighborhood was also an act influenced by their support for integration; however, Hansberry said the court case contributed to her father’s death, who died when she was 15.

“American racism helped kill him,” she asserted “American racism helped kill him,” she asserted. She also said, “Both of my parents were strong-minded, civic-minded, exceptionally race-minded people who made enormous sacrifices on behalf of the struggle for civil rights throughout their lifetimes.” Lorraine chose to challenge racism through joining protests in college and through her writing.

Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart--PBS documentary trailer Release date--Jan 2018 Video (2:37)

Hansberry’s Hope for the Play (39 seconds) Based on her letter to her mother, what message was Hansberry hoping to convey to audiences through her play?