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, Hansberry’s play illustrates black America’s 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
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 Women’s 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?