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LEARNING GUIDE FOR
A Raisin in the Sun
By Lorraine Hansberry
"... in order for a person to bear his life, he needs a valid re-creation of that life, which is why,
as Ray Charles might put it, blacks chose to sing the blues. This is why Raisin in the Sun
meant so much to black people - on the stage: the film is another matter. In the theater, a
current flowed back and forth between the audience and the actors, flesh and blood
corroborating flesh and blood - as we say, testifying...” James Baldwin
Prepared by the
Department of Education and Community Programs
Melinda McCrary, Director
Philip blue owl Hooser, Education Associate
Gary Campbell, Education Associate
Arts Education and Education and Participation in the
Arts Benefit Students
)A report called “Imaginative Actuality, Learning in the Arts During Non School
Hours” by Shirley Brice Heath with Adelma Roach of Stanford University and The
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, found that arts education
can help level the playing field for children from disadvantaged backgrounds,
improve student performance, and improve the personal lives of youth at risk.
Heath’s team also notes that arts programs are more effective in teaching at-risk
students communication skills, collaborative techniques, self-discipline, selfexpression, commitment and perseverance than athletic or academic-based afterschool programs. Youth in arts programs are twice as likely to win an award for
academic achievement; and 23 percent more likely to feel they can make plans
and successfully work from them.
In Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, 1999, available at:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/champions/pdfs/ChampsReport.pdf
)For information on the arts as a way to build workforce skills for the 21st
Century, see the November 1997 issue of Educational Leadership, which includes
an insert by the Getty Institute for the Arts entitled Arts Education for Life and Work.
"In the long history of man, countless empires and nations have come and gone.
Those which created no lasting works of art
are reduced today to short footnotes in history's catalog.
Art is a nation's most precious heritage, for it is in our works of art that we reveal to
ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a Nation.
And where there is no vision, the people perish.”
-- President Lyndon Johnson
During the bill-signing ceremony for the
National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965
James Catterall’s database of 25,000 students demonstrates that those with extensive arts
experience outperform “arts-poor” students on virtually every measure. And, in what is
one of the most powerful of all findings, Catterall’s UCLA study notes that 12th-grade
students involved in theatre are more likely than all other 12th-graders to interact well
with other racial groups and are far less likely to tolerate racist behavior.
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A Raisin in the Sun
By Lorraine Hansberry
ALSO THIS SEASON in the
Sprint Student Matinee Series
Give ‘Em Hell, Harry
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
The Trip to Bountiful
March 28, 29, 30, 31, and
March 9 and 23, 2006
May 11 and 18, 2006
April 11 and 25, 2006
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre receives financial support from The Missouri Arts Council. The
Missouri Arts Council provides grants to nonprofit organizations to encourage and stimulate the growth,
development, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri.
A Raisin in the Sun is co-sponsored by
and
Media sponsor for A Raisin in the Sun is
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre receives generous support from the following:
Citigroup
Francis Family Foundation
Hallmark Corporate Foundation
Hall Family Foundation
H&R Block Foundation
The Hearst Foundation
Kansas City Power & Light
R. A. Long Foundation
Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation
Missouri Arts Council
Oppenstein Brothers Foundation
Sprint
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CONTENTS
Kansas City Rep is pleased to offer an exclusive online project related to
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at http:\\www.kcrep.org
The Play at a Glance ................................................................................................... 5
ABOUT THE PLAY.......................................................................................................... 6
About the Playwright: Lorraine Hansberry..................................................... 6
Major Writings ....................................................................................................... 9
History of Production .............................................................................................. 9
Lloyd Richards ....................................................................................................... 9
Deleted scenes .................................................................................................... 10
REVIVALS .............................................................................................................. 11
Issues of the Play: ................................................................................................. 11
1950s African American culture ................................................................... 11
Relationships between men and women................................................... 13
Relationships between African Americans and Africans...................... 14
Characters................................................................................................................. 15
Major Characters ................................................................................................ 15
Other Characters ................................................................................................ 16
Background and social context ......................................................................... 17
Great Migration ................................................................................................... 17
Dialect in the script ........................................................................................... 18
SPECIAL MATERIAL ................................................................................................... 20
Timeline of Civil Rights Events.......................................................................... 20
Vocabulary ................................................................................................................ 26
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION (Who’s Who in the Company).......................... 28
Comprehension: A Raisin in the Sun.................................................................. 32
Short-Term Projects.................................................................................................. 36
Multi-Day Projects.......................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
RESOURCES.................................................................................................................. 45
Biographical sites about Lorraine Hansberry.......... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Works about the Author.........................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The Play at a Glance
Plot Summary
The Younger family is expecting a life insurance check for $10,000.00, which every
member of the family wants to use to fulfill a dream: the son, Walter Lee, working as a
chauffeur, hopes to use open a liquor store. Beneatha, his sister, wants to go to medical
school. Their mother, Lena Younger, however, uses some for a better house for her
family, and wants to save some for Beneatha’s education. Lena trusts Walter to deposit
half the money in the bank, but he loses it to a con artist. A representative of the allwhite neighborhood in which Lena has purchased a house, tries to buy the family out,
which Walter almost begs for, to restore the lost money. However, he regains
his pride and integrity and decides that the family will take the house after all. His refusal
anticipates the uncompromising policies of the civil rights movement of the 1960s
Setting
South side of Chicago, the 1950s.
Issues and Ideas
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1950s African American culture
Segregation and Integration in the United States (pre-1960s Civil Rights)
Family conflict
Relationships between men and women
Relationships between African Americans and Africans
Of Special Interest
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Written by Lorraine Hansberry
The first play by a black woman to be produced in a Broadway theater; First
Black playwright, fifth woman and youngest American to win New York Critics'
Circle Award.
Lorraine Hansberry's plays A Raisin in the Sun, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's
Window, To Be Young, Gifted and Black and Les Blancs (the last two of which
were finished after her death by the playwright's husband, Robert Nemiroff) are
most frequently heralded because of their poignant protests against racial
injustice. Especially for white audiences, A Raisin in the Sun sounded an
immutable plea for recognition of the frustrated aspirations of black Americans.
In its juxtaposition of white bigotry against the struggles and despair of a warm,
witty, black family, A Raisin in the Sun became one of the most successful
cultural gestures of the integrationist movement. Winner of the Drama Critics
Circle Award for best American play of the 1958-59 season, A Raisin in the Sun
not only played to thousands of spectators for almost two years on Broadway, but
also provided new access to the theatre for black artists.
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ABOUT THE PLAY
About the Playwright: Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry was born the youngest of four children of Carl and Nannie
Hansberry, a respected and successful black family in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a
successful real estate businessman, an inventor and a politician who ran for congress in
1940, as well as being treasurer for the Chicago branch of the N.A.A.C.P. Her mother
Nannie was the college educated daughter of an African Methodist Episcopal minister,
and the niece of William Leo Hansberry, professor of African history in at Howard
University in Washington, D.C. (A college at the University of Nigeria was named in his
honor.)
Although the Hansberry family was economically middle class, segregation laws forced
them to live in the ghettoes of Chicago's South Side. The family could have afforded to
send Lorraine to private schools, but her parents sent her to public schools as a protest.
Her experiences there set a lifetime way of thinking, “My mother sent me to kindergarten
in white fur in the middle of the depression; the kids beat me up; and I think it was from
that moment I became - a rebel…” She was also inspired by her parents, who had been,
as she wrote, “strong-minded, civic-minded, exceptionally race-minded people who made
enormous sacrifices on behalf of the struggle for civil rights throughout their lifetimes.”
In defiance of deep-rooted segregation, her parents purchased a house in an all-white
neighborhood when Lorraine was eight. A racially biased real estate covenant on the
house was designed to prohibit the sale of the property to a black buyer. They were
violently attacked one night by a racist mob that stormed the house. A brick flung
through the window barely missed Lorraine and became embedded in the wall. The mob
drove them from the house, which led to a civil rights case which William Leo Hansberry
successfully argued before the Illinois Supreme Court. The events also loosely inspired
the action of her play A Raisin in the Sun.
During her teenage years, the Hansberry household hosted numerous African American
celebrities, including Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Duke Ellington, and Paul
Robeson. She eventually became deeply involved in social and political movements.
She studied art at the University of Wisconsin and in Guadalajara, Mexico. In Wisconsin
she joined the Young Progressives of America and later the Labor Youth League. After
attending a school performance of a play by the Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, she
decided to become a writer. She believed O’Casey’s work showed "the genuine heroism
which must naturally emerge when you tell the truth about people."
Hansberry dropped out of college in 1950 and moved to New York, teaching at Frederick
Douglass School and taking writing classes at the New School for Social Research. She
also worked as an associate editor of Paul Robeson's progressive black newspaper,
Freedom.
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In 1953 Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish literature student and songwriter,
whom she had met on a picket line protesting the exclusion of black athletes from sports
at New York University. When Nemiroff’s song “Cindy, Oh, Cindy” became a hit, she
was able to devote herself to writing full-time, and began work on a play then titled The
Crystal Stair, from Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son,” which begins:
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor -Bare.
Soon, Hansberry changed the title, inspired by another of Hughes’ poems, “Harlem,” in
which he wrote
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun,
Or does it explode?
She told her husband that she wanted to write a social drama about blacks in America,
but she also wanted it to stand on its own merits as a work of art. She was tired of seeing
blacks portrayed as cardboard characters with stereotypical dialect, so she wrote about
the Younger family based on her own experiences in Chicago’s South Side.
The play’s producers, Phil Rose and David Cogan, needed about a year to raise enough
money to finance the play; large investors were not interested in it and it took over 150
investors to get the play mounted. They also could not get it into a Broadway theatre
until “out of town” runs in New Haven, Philadelphia, and Chicago were wildly
successful. Eventually it opened at Ethel Barrymore Theatre, on March 11, 1959. It was
the first play by an African American to play in a Broadway theatre, and the first
Broadway production directed by an African American director (Lloyd Richards) in more
than fifty years. In New York, it ran 530 performances. Sidney Poitier played the role of
Walter Lee, and the cast including Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Lou Gossett, Glynn
Turman and Diana Sands. Ossie Davis later replaced Poitier.
The white press applauded the play for not being only a "Negro play" but one that was a
universal drama. This implied that the story would be the same if the black characters
were replaced with white ones. In part, Hansberry agreed, saying, "I don’t think there is
anything more universal in the world than man’s oppression to man." But she argued that
her characters were distinctly Negro and even more specifically from Chicago’s South
Side. She insisted that "one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that, in order to
create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific."
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With visibility and success came detractors. Nelson Algren, whose writing had
articulated the darker side of Chicago for years, disparaged it as "a good drama about real
estate." Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka originally described the play’s subject as
"middle class - - buying a house and moving into white folks neighborhoods." But he
later said that its themes "are actually reflective of the essence of black people’s striving
and the will to defeat segregation, discrimination, and national oppression." However,
more extreme aspirations would probably not have led to the acceptance and success the
play achieved, allowing its successor to explore those themes. In its day, A Raisin in the
Sun was considered radical for broaching topics such as the role of religion in black
homes, colonialism by the English and French in Africa, and the “Back to Africa”
movement.
Following the success of Raisin, however, Hansberry’s personal life became unsettled.
As the press paid more attention to her, accusations arose that the Hansberry family were
slumlords on Chicago’s South Side. To escape the publicity, her family moved to Los
Angeles. As she began to publicly acknowledge her lesbianism, her marriage declined
and she and Nemiroff divorced in 1964, although they continued to collaborate in writing
and remained close friends. NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, commissioned
The Drinking Gourd, a story dealing with the American system of slavery, but it was not
produced, being considered too controversial for television.
In 1961, she wrote screenplay of A Raisin in the Sun for a film version which also
featured Sidney Poitier. She won special award for screenplay at the Cannes Film
Festival.
Hansberry returned to the theatre with The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Set in
Greenwich Village, where she had long made her home, the play has only one black
character, centering on a Jewish intellectual who becomes disillusioned while working on
the campaign of a local politician. He comes to consider himself a fool for believing in
the promises of social reform.
While preparing for the Broadway production, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. Hansberry often attended rehearsals in a wheelchair, and spent much of her time
in hospitals. The play closed after only 101 performances, ending on January 12, 1965,
the same day Hansberry died. She left behind several unfinished works such as
Toussaint, an opera based on the life of the 18th C. Haitian leader.
In 1970, her ex-husband completed and produced Hansberry’s play Les Blancs offBroadway. The title of the play refers to French playwright Jean Genet’s play Les
Negres, in which the action argues that blacks liberated from their colonial status would
be as susceptible to corruption as ruling whites were. Hansberry considered Genet’s
work to be “white people talking to themselves,” when she thought the dialogue about
power should include people of all ethnicities.
Set in the fictional African Nation of Zatembe, Les Blancs (The Whites) ostensibly shows
the African quest for freedom from European colonialists, but also functions as a
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commentary on race relations in America during the last years of Hansberry’s life. The
Africans in the play as well as the African Americans in the early 1960s were being
goaded to taking action after being frustrated by years of oppression and a “one-sided
conversation” about race with representatives of the dominant culture. Knowledgeable
about Africa and with strong beliefs about the means American blacks should use to
attain civil rights, Hansberry used the play to express her belief that "ultimate destiny and
aspirations of the African people and twenty million American Negroes are inextricably
and magnificently bound up together forever.”
The show was not a great success. During the 1960s, more black playwrights had
emerged, with more radical messages and theatrical forms. Hansberry’s works came to
be regarded as artistically conservative. It was also a time when monetary success was
considered antithetical to artistic success. Some argued that Hansberry sacrificed her
political integrity to make her message acceptible to a predominantly white audience.
Nemiroff published Les Blancs in a collection with The Drinking Gourd, and What Use
Are Flowers? In 1973, he collaborated with Charlotte Zaltzberg on Raisin, a musical
adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It was
revived in 1981, with Claudia McNeil, who had played Lena in the original 1959
production, recreating her role in the musical version.
Upon her untimely death in 1965, Martin Luther King described Hansberry as “a woman
whose creative ability and profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world
would remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.” After her success with A Raisin
in the Sun, Hansberry became the foremother of Black American drama and many who
followed felt a great debt to her theatrical and political vision. She also contributed to the
understanding of abortion, discrimination, and Africa. In San Francisco, The Lorraine
Hansberry Theatre, which specializes in staging original works and revivals of classics
of African-American theatre, is named in honor of her great contributions.
Major Writings
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A Raisin in the Sun (play), 1959; (screenplay), 1960.
The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality, 1964.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, 1964.
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words (play
based on her life and work, adapted by Robert Nemiroff), 1969.
Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry, [includes teleplays
The Drinking Gourd and What Use are Flowers?] ed. by Robert Nemiroff, 1972.
History of Production
Lloyd Richards
Lloyd Richards directed the original Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun. In 1966,
Richards became head of the actor training program at New York University's School of the Arts.
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He was also Professor of Theater and Cinema at Hunter College in New York City before he was
tapped to become dean of the Yale University School of Drama in 1979, and Artistic Director of
the Yale Repertory Theater. Richards has discovered and developed new plays and playwrights,
as Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial
Theatre Center. In 1984, his search for a major new American playwright was fulfilled with the
production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson, and the successive installments of
Wilson's multi-part chronicle of African-American life.
When we were both quite broke, I recall sharing a hot dog with Sidney [Poitier], because neither
one of us could afford to have a whole one. He said to me one day, "If I ever do a major
Broadway show, I want you to direct it." … it only was fantasy or an aspect of a dream. And
some dreams come true.
I did get the call from Sidney. He said he had read a wonderful play, which had been submitted to
him, and that he wanted to do. And he wanted to suggest me to direct it. He sent me a copy of the
script, which was A Raisin in the Sun. My wife and I read it that night, and we howled, and we
cried; we had a wonderful time reading it. … We decided, okay, lets do it. …. Lorraine and I
were rewriting the play, so we met once a week and talked about it, and Lorraine would work on
it. I would challenge her to things, and she would top me in what she wrote. It was a wonderful
year in that respect. It took that long to work on it.
We went to New Haven. I think the word started to float back to New York that possibly there
was something that had some value there. We got to Philadelphia, opened to a little bit more than
half a house, and by the fourth day, we were a sell-out. The Shuberts came and saw the show in
Philadelphia, and said they did not have a theater for us in New York, but if we would go to
Chicago for eight weeks, they would underwrite the show against loss, they would have a theater
for us in New York, the Barrymore.
In Chicago, for those eight weeks, Lorraine could only be there for opening. She was from
Chicago. Her father was a real estate broker in Chicago, and evidently a very good one, a militant
one, and he had taken the first restrictive covenant case to the Supreme Court, and won it. So all
of the real estate interests in Chicago were against him. It was Lorraine's sense that actually that
pressure had killed him, and she resented those interests for that. And of course, [she] inherited
some property when he died. Well, when they found Lorraine was in town, there were all of these
warts that started to appear, and she had to leave town. We did our work on the play over the
phone for eight weeks. I would work on the play, it would perform at night, and I would talk to
Lorraine, make suggestions. She never saw that work, during that period, until we got back to
New York. When we opened in New York, it was quite exhilarating.
Deleted scenes
Most of the cuts from the complete version of the script were made because of time
constraints. However, one particular deleted scene came from a bad haircut. This was a
scene in which Beneatha has cut her hair and is wearing it in the "natural" style that she
knows Asagai will admire.
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This scene was very important to Hansberry as a statement about the identity crisis within
the black community, long before the “awakening” of African-centered consciousness of
the 1960s. It was taken out because, just before the show opened, the actress playing the
role of Beneatha had inadvertently been given a disastrous haircut, which everyone
involved in the production of Raisin felt would have made a negative statement to the
audience about Hansberry's true, positive feelings about the natural hairstyle.
Another omission from the original stage production is a scene in which Travis is playing
with a group of neighborhood boys; for sport, they are chasing a rat. Later, Travis is at
home, telling his family about the fun he had chasing the rat with his friends. Hansberry
wanted to use the scene to show the daily horrors that confronted poor children – that
their “sport” was in chasing a potentially disease-carrying rodent.
REVIVALS
The play was revived on Broadway in 2004 with a cast featuring Sean Combs (acclaimed
for his work in the film Monster’s Ball), three-time Tony Award winner Audra
McDonald (Ragtime, Master Class, Carousel), celebrated stage and television actress
Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show) and film star Sanaa Lathan (Out of Time, Love &
Basketball). The revival was nominated for four Tony Awards, with Audra McDonald
receiving the award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and Phylicia Rashad making
history as the first African-American to win Leading Actress in a Play.
Issues of the Play:
1950s African American culture
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, African Americans created an
independent community and cultural life, establishing schools, banks, newspapers, and
small businesses to serve the needs of their community. Segregationist and “Jim Crow”
laws kept ethnicities separated, even to streets used as boundaries that kept communities
divided.
The “Great Migration” of blacks out of the South and into the urban North awakened a
particularly African-American consciousness, leading to the Harlem and Chicago
Renaissances. Because Art had been central to African life, Alain Locke urged black
American artists to re-establish the position of art at the core of black life and to make art
a liberating force for their people, and made the world aware of the cultural contributions
that African artists had made to modern art.
By the 1940s, cover versions of African American songs were commonplace, and
frequently topped the charts, while the original musicians found little success. Popular
African American music at the time was a developing genre called rock 'n' roll, whose
exponents included Little Richard and Jackie Brenston. The following decade saw the
first major crossover acts, with Bill Haley and Elvis Presley performing rockabilly, a rock
and country fusion, while black artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley received
unprecedented mainstream success. Presley went on to become perhaps the first
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watershed figure in American music; his career, while never extremely innovative,
marked the beginning of the acceptance of musical tastes crossing racial boundaries
among all audiences. He was also the first in a long line of white performers to achieve
what some perceive as undue fame for his influence, since many of his fans showed no
desire to learn about the pioneers he learned from. The 50s also saw doo wop become
popular.
Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, social change picked up speed with the
Supreme Court's rejection of “separate but equal” education for blacks, federal troops
securing the admission of a black pupil in a public school at Little Rock, Rosa Parks and
the Montgomery buses, sit-ins at lunch counters, and the rioting in Mississippi when
James Meredith tried to enter the state university, the freedom marches, the singing of
“We Shall Overcome,” the great "dream" of Martin Luther King, and the long-awaited
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Relationships between men and women
Because of its timely social focus on racial inequities, the portrayal of the female
characters in A Raisin in the Sun is often neglected. Hansberry felt that the action of the
play flowed from the character of Lena, yet her daughter Beneatha and daughter-in-law
Ruth are two of the most interesting female characters to emerge in traditional American
drama in the twentieth century.
Practically from the very beginning of the play, Walter Lee criticizes black women as a
group and his wife in particular for their lack of support for black men. Annoyed at
Ruth’s disinterest in his plans to invest in a liquor store, Walter erupts:
Man say to his woman, I got me a dream! His woman say, eat your eggs and
go to work. Man say, I’m choking to death baby! And his woman say, Your
eggs is getting cold.
Coming as it does in the first scene of the play, this outburst defines Walter Lee’s
relationship to the women who surround him. It can also be seen as an accusation that
black women have participated in the social creation of a generation of powerless black
males. People of all ethnicities might recognize themselves in a situation of talking about
their deepest desires, while someone else brings them back “down to earth” with the
more day-to-day concerns of food and shelter. Yet it is Ruth who continues to work
throughout the play as a domestic, supporting the entire household, and Walter’s selfobsession that keeps him from recognizing her strength and sorrow.
Hansberry’s social view of men’s attitudes toward women and women’s own perceptions
becomes more clear in scenes that center on Beneatha. Walter’s chauvinism and derision
of Beneatha’s dreams of medical school is echoed by Asagi, who believes Beneatha’s
real desire is for a conventional romance. When Beneatha protests that there is more than
one kind of feeling possible between a man and a woman, Asagai laughs his denial; when
Beneatha then acknowledges his love for her but says it isn't enough, he responds, "For a
woman, it should be enough."
One of the aspects of the play that went against the grain of the majority of American
culture of the 1950s was that Lena is the head of her household. She exists as a pro- and
proto-feminist example of a woman who can support and guide a family, even as she
exerts control over it. In her husband’s absence, she has become official head of the
household, but it is easy to imagine that she “ruled the roost” even before then, from such
moments as Walter yelling, “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!”
and she responds with the simple strength of “I don’t ‘low no yellin’ in this house, Walter
Lee, and you know it.” Her reaction is even stronger when Beneatha says “There simply
is no blasted God – there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!” Lena slaps her
daughter across the face, forcing the recognition that in her house, there is still God.
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Relationships between African Americans and Africans
Through Asagai (and sometimes through Beneatha), the audience gains valuable insight into
African history, politics, art, and philosophy. Even the character of George Murchison glorifies,
by default, the ancient African civilizations when he derisively mentions "the African past," "the
Great West African Heritage," "the great Ashanti empires," "the great Songhay civilizations,"
"the great sculpture of Benin," and "poetry in the Bantu." Although George is being facetious,
still he uses adjectives that praise and laud the accomplishments of a continent with which many
theatergoers, at the time of the opening of Raisin, were extremely unfamiliar.
Hansberry structures the drama according to classic European dramatic forms: Raisin is divided
into three conventional acts with their distinct scenes. Yet, Hansberry employs techniques of the
absurdist drama--particularly in the scene in which a drunken Walter Lee walks in on Beneatha's
African dancing and is able to immediately summon a memory which psychically connects him
with an African past that his character, in reality, would not have known. Walter Lee is able to
sing and dance and chant as though he had studied African culture.
Hansberry's skillful use of this momentary absurdity makes Walter's performance seem absolutely
plausible to her audience. Note also in this work that Hansberry refers to an ancient Greek
mythological titan, Prometheus, then makes a reference to an icon of the American entertainment
world, Pearl Bailey, and then a reference to Jomo Kenyatta, a major African scholar and
politician, yet there is no loss of continuity because the audience is able to immediately perceive
the connection.
Hansberry's recognition of the close relationship between art and propaganda is the reason she
chose the environment of the powerless as a backdrop for her work about American culture. Her
objective was to be a spokesperson for those who, prior to Raisin, had no voice. The thought that
anyone outside of the black community would care about the struggles of a black family in
Southside Chicago, prior to the opening of Raisin, was all but preposterous. Not only did
Hansberry choose as the voice of her theme a black family (and a poor black family, at that), but
she also threaded information about Africa throughout the fabric of her play, mainly through her
most stable character, Asagai, Beneatha's suitor from Nigeria.
The Negro writer in the United States has always had – has been forced to have in spite of
himself – two audiences, one black, one white. And, as long has been America’s dilemma, seldom
“the twain shall meet.” The fence between the two audiences is the color bar, which in reality
stretches around the world. Writers, who feel they must straddle this fence, perforce acquire a
split personality. Writers who do not care whether they straddle the fence of color or not, are
usually the best writers, attempting at least to let their art leap the barriers of color, poverty or
whatever other roadblocks to artistic truth there maybe. Unfortunately, some writers get artistic
truth and financial success mixed up, get critical acclaim and personal integrity confused. Such
are the dilemmas which the double audience creates. Which set of readers to please – the white,
the black, or both at once?
The best writers are those who possess enough self-integrity to wish first and foremost to please
themselves, only themselves, and nobody else. But this, when one is young and one’s thinking is
unclear – and one’s ability to analyze this world about one is uncertain – is not easy.
--Langston Hughes
14
Characters
Major Characters
Lena Younger (Mama):
Lena (Mama) is the matriarch of the Younger family. A proud woman, Lena Younger
does not have much material wealth, but she walks tall, exudes dignity, and carries
herself, as Hansberry says, with the "noble bearing of the women of the Heroes of
Southwest Africa [a pastoral people]," as though she walks with a "basket or a vessel
upon her head." Her children are her life; she refers to them as her "harvest." She
migrated north to Chicago from the South during the harsh lynching period for Negroes
and cannot understand the modern ways in which people are heading. Everyone in the
family looks to her for advice and love, which she openly gives with all her heart.
Walter Lee Younger:
Walter Lee is Lena's oldest child and only son. He is married to Ruth and works as a
chauffeur for wealthy white people. He constantly feels as though the entire world is
against him, especially the women in his life: his mother and his wife. Walter's singular
obsession with making money causes him to lose sight of his possible alternatives and of
a compromise that might have led to his goal of economic independence.
Ruth Younger:
Ruth is Walter Lee's wife, a deeply emotional and old fashioned woman who exhibits a
quiet strength. Despite her true love for family and her husband, she has difficulty dealing
with Walter's treatment of her. Ruth is pregnant and goes to a female gynecologist to put
a down payment on having her unborn child aborted, not because she wants to, but
because she is worried about the additional burden she would bring to the family that she
already has. Ruth is excited to move into a new home because she wants her son Travis
to have a better life. Hansberry describes Ruth as being "about thirty" but "in a few
years, she will be known among her people as a 'settled woman.'" Her biggest dream
blossoms only after Mama's news of the possibility of their moving to a better
neighborhood.
Beneatha Younger:
Beneatha (also known as Bennie) is Lena's youngest child and only daughter, who plans
to become a doctor. She constantly presents herself as a modern, black woman, with new
freedoms and rights, and plans to find her roots both in America and in Africa. Beneatha's
"schooling" is a privilege that Walter Lee has not had, yet Beneatha appears to believe
that a higher education is her right. Everyone in the family is making a sacrifice so that
Beneatha can become a doctor--a fact pointed out by Walter Lee as they clash in the first
scene of the play. Yet beneath what seems to be selfishness, Beneatha's strengths are her
15
spirit of independence, the fact that she is a "new woman" who refuses to accept the
traditional, spineless female role, and the fact that she is so knowledgeable about Africa
that her self-esteem is enhanced. Because Beneatha is the most educated of the Youngers,
she sometimes seems to be obnoxious and self-centered; especially in the early scenes,
she freely shares her views in a household that has difficulty understanding her
perspectives. She favors her African suitor over her rich boyfriend, much to the
puzzlement of her family. But, the closer she gets to Africa via her relationship with
Joseph Asagai, the more she develops into a pleasant, likeable, and less egocentric
person.
Travis Younger:
Travis is Ruth and Walter Lee's only child and sleeps on the couch in the living room. In
the first scene of the play, we watch him cleverly get what he wants (the fifty cents his
teacher has told him to bring to school) from his father after his mother has emphatically
stated that they just don't have fifty cents. Earlier, Travis said that he could get it from his
grandmother, which implies that she gives him whatever he asks for. He loves his
grandma deeply and buys her a large gardening hat as a moving gift.
Other Characters
Joseph Asagai:
Asagai is Beneatha's African boyfriend. He is from Nigeria and wants to take Bennie
back with him to practice medicine in Africa. He is very intelligent and stays close to his
roots. The name of Hansberry's African character is taken from the word "assegai,"
which means a short-handled stabbing spear, famous in the successful war of Shaka Zulu.
George Murchison:
George Murchison is Beneatha's wealthy gentleman caller. He is true Negro wealth and
has an ego to back it up. The Younger family appears to want Bennie to marry George for
his money.
Karl Lindner:
Mr. Lindner is the white representative from the Clybourne Welcoming Committee. He
offers the Younger family money in exchange for their absence from his neighborhood.
Bobo :
Bobo is one of Walter Lee's acquaintances. He is one of the men in on the deal for the
liquor store and informs Walter Lee that Willy Harris has disappeared with both his and
Walter's money.
16
Background and social context
Great Migration
The Younger family lives on Chicago’s South Side, which was often referred to as “the
Black Belt.” Even within this racially segregated area, there were differences related to
economic status. The poorest residents lived in the northernmost, oldest section, while
the richer blacks resided in the southernmost part. As the population grew, the South
Side remained basically the same, while whites kept blacks out of their neighborhoods,
fearing that black neighbors would drive down property values.
The South Side grew in population during the “Great Migration” of African Americans,
mostly from rural areas of the southern United States into urban areas in the north.
Occuring mostly between the 1910s and 1960s, the move was driven by several factors,
some drawing the migrants north, and some pushing them out from the lives they had
known.
1.
In the late 1910s, an infestation of boll weevils in the cotton fields of the South
forced many sharecroppers to search for employment opportunities elsewhere; this was
complicated by a drop in cotton prices, meaning the landowners could no longer afford to
hire outside workers and the tenant farmers could no longer afford to pay their rents.
2.
The flow of immigrants from Europe was essentially stopped during World War I,
causing shortages of workers in the factories.
3.
After the war, anti-immigration legislation similarly resulted in a dire shortage of
workers.
4.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and its aftermath displaced hundreds of
thousands of African-American farm workers.
5.
While there were still racial prejudices and segregation in the North, racial
prejudices were less likely to result in severe violence and terror campaigns against the
African American population, such as that waged by the newly reemerged Ku Klux Klan,
despite the riots in East Saint Louis, Illinois in 1917 and Detroit in 1943.
6.
The Great Depression caused people to seek new employment opportunities in all
parts of the United States.
7.
Even before America's entry into World War II, industrial production in the
Northeast and Midwest increased rapidly and workers were needed to staff the factories.
8.
In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which
banned racial discrimination in the workplace in all industries involved in the war effort,
and paved the way for the civil rights movement.
9.
The postwar economic boom offered additional opportunities for black workers in
northern cities.
Since the 1980s, however, a second Great Migration of African Americans has flowed
back to the South. Typically these migrants are descendants of the original Migration,
motivated by and ecnomic boom in Southern cities, particularly Atlanta.
17
Dialect in the script
Although Lorraine Hansberry’s immediate family were all college educated and spoke
Standard English at home, she understood that dialects help establish a community
identity, and the dialects of black communities were – and continue to be – different from
those of other communities. Hansberry spent a significant amount of time in poor South
Side households, much like the Younger family’s in Raisin. The dialect the characters
speak is called African American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called Black English,
Black Vernacular, and is known colloquially as Ebonics.
AAVE is often mistakenly perceived by speakers of Standard American English as
indicating low intelligence or a lack of education. AAVE sometimes has been called
"lazy" or "bad" English and some people have challenged whether it should be
considered a valid form of English at all. However, among linguists there is no such
controversy, since AAVE, like all dialects, shows consistent internal logic and structure.
Several West African meanings have become part of American English because of the
similarity of sound with English words. Many of them specifically became associated
with jazz music, for instance, the Wolof suffix –kat signifying a person, was adapted to
the English “cat” to mean a friend, or a “nice guy.” Others include “cool” in the sense of
calm (from the similar meaning of Mandingo suma meaning “slow” but which literally
translates as “cool”) and “dig” from the Wolof deg or dega meaning “to understand or
appreciate.”
AAVE is related to Southern American English, and originates in the time of slavery.
Slaves were forbidden a formal education and learned what English they could from what
they heard, creating a kind of “Pidgin English” not unlike that spoken by much of the
American Indian population. Since many of the slaves were from West Africa, they used
the grammatical structures they knew in learning English. Although it is not Standard
English structure Even some of the “errors” in constructing AAVE are for an intentional
effect. This Black English has its own consistent grammatical structure, and is seen
throughout the play.
One of the most consistently noted features of AAVE is in the “abuse” of forms of the
verb “to be.” Sometimes it takes a meaning akin to “all the time,” as in Walter’s line, “I
can't be bein' late to work on account of him fooling around in there.” In other cases,
when the main verb in the sentence is left out, it indicates that the action being described
is happening immediately, so that in AAVE, “He going” has a different meaning from
“He be going.” This use of the verb “to be” is consistent in all languages slaves learned,
including Dutch and French.
Sometimes forms of “to be” are omitted between subjects and adjectives, communicating
the idea more quickly, as in Mama’s lines “We ain’t no business people, Ruth. We just
plain working folks,” and “Ruth, honey – what’s the matter with you – you sick?”
18
Another regular and deliberate deviation from Standard English is the excessive use of
negatives. In Standard English, of course, the double negative creates a positive
statement, but in AAVE, it is used for emphasis. Perhaps there is so much of this in
Raisin to create its own kind of emphasis about the negative aspects of the characters’
lives. Mama says, “Now here come you and Beneatha talking 'bout things we ain't never
even thought about hardly . . .” and Ruth has the line “Walter, that ain't none of our
money .”
But within the dialect of the characters, there is also a difference in the way each
character speaks. Mama uses more southern words and expressions than any other
character (“Tell that youngun to get himself up here”) – and Walter’s speech has none at
all. Walter’s wife Ruth has not has as much education as he has, and her dialogue has
more Standard English “errors” than his, making her sound more like Mama than her
own children. Other characters also have obviously Southern backgrounds, as in Bobo’s
overly polite “Well, h’you, Miss Ruth,” and Mrs. Johnson saying, “I finds I can't close
my eyes right lessen I done had that last cup of coffee ...”
Another example of dialect, and the use of a particularly hateful word, comes toward the
end of the play. It shows how powerful and terrible what has come to be known as “the
n-word” was in the 1950s. Even with African American youth using it (perhaps trying to
reclaim its power or perhaps not knowing its history), it is still effective and shocking in
the context of the play.
A White man offers the family more money than they'd already spent on the house to find
another neighborhood to live in. Afterwards, Walter, a Black man, is enraged: "You
people just put the money in my hand and you won't have to live next to this bunch of
stinking niggers!-Maybe-maybe I'll just get down on my black knees-Captain, Mistuh,
Bossman. A-hee-hee-hee! Yasssssuh! Great White Father, just gi' ussen de money, fo'
God's sake, and we's ain't gwime come out deh and dirty up yo' white folks
neighborhood."
In this scene, Walter uses “the n-word” and speaks in dialect to show how White people
viewed Blacks and how powerful and terrible the n-word was coming from someone who
was Black. When Walter's family hear his language, they're appalled.
19
SPECIAL MATERIAL
20
In Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court upholds the concept of
"separate but equal" public facilities. "Separate but equal" was a
policy enacted into law throughout the U.S. Southern states during the
period of segregation, in which African-Americans and EuropeanAmericans would receive the same services (schools, hospitals, water
fountains, bathrooms, etc.), but with distinct facilities for each race.
Because of racist attitudes, however, the facilities were, in fact,
unequal, with poorer facilities being allotted to Blacks than to Whites.
In Buffalo, N.Y., the Niagara Movement begins: a group of 32
African American men, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope, and
William Monroe Trotter, who called for full civil liberties, an end to
racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood. The
Niagara Movement eventually became the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People in 1909.
The first conference of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is held in New York City
with three hundred black and white Americans in attendance.
1918
The National Urban League (NUL) is founded to assist southern
black emigrants to the North. It is the nation’s oldest and largest
community-based movement empowering Black Americans to enter
the economic and social mainstream.
In Guinn v. the United States, the Supreme Court rules against the
"Grandfather clauses" used in southern states to deny blacks the right
to vote. The Oklahoma statute in question, while appearing to treat
white and black voters equally, allowed illiterates to vote if they could
prove either that their grandfathers had been voters or had been
citizens of some foreign nation. As a result, illiterate whites were able
to vote — but not illiterate blacks, whose grandfathers had almost all
been slaves and therefore barred from voting.
More than twenty-five race riots occur across the country, leaving over
one hundred people dead. Harlem Renaissance author James Weldon
Johnson calls this time the "Red Summer."
1925
1915
1910
1909
1905
1896
Timeline of Civil Rights Events
A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
an influential black labor union.
1929
Michael King (later known as Martin Luther King, Jr.) is born at 501
Auburn Ave. in Atlanta, Georgia.
1934
Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole) becomes the leader of the
Nation of Islam, a socio-political group with a declared aim of
"resurrecting" the spiritual, mental, social and economic condition of
the black man and woman of America and the world.
1936
Martin King, Sr., is chosen to lead the NAACP membership drive in
Atlanta.
1939
Martin Luther King, Sr., as head of the Atlanta Baptist Ministers
Union, leads several hundred black Atlantans on a voter registration
march to City Hall.
1941
A. Philip Randolph issues a call for one hundred thousand blacks to
march on Washington, D.C. to protest employment discrimination in
the armed forces and war industry. It forces President Roosevelt to
take steps against racial discrimination in defense industries.
1943
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded. Inspired by the
nonviolent civil disobedience outlined by Henry David Thoreau and practiced
by Gandhi, college students founded CORE to try using nonviolent tactics to
challenge racism in the American South.
King travels to Dublin, Georgia, to deliver his oration "The Negro and the
Constitution."
1944
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded.
U.S. Supreme Court decides, 8-1, in Smith v. Allwright, that exclusion of
African-Americans from voting in the Texas Democratic primary violates the
Fifteenth Amendment. Smith, a black voter, sued for the right to vote in a
primary election being conducted by the Democratic Party. Many felt that
this set the stage for the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S.
483 (1954) ten years later and helped lead the way into the Civil Rights Era.
21
1945
The Women’s Political Council, an organization for black women and later
the initiator of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, is founded by Mary Fair
Burks after Montgomery, Alabama’s League of Women Voters refuses to
accept black members.
King quits his job as a laborer at the Atlanta Railway Express Company when
a white foreman calls him "nigger."
The Atlanta Constitution publishes King’s letter to the editor stating that
black people "are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American
citizens."
1948
Randolph warns Truman at White House meeting on March 22 that he
will lead a civil disobedience campaign against the draft unless the
armed forces are integrated. Truman issues two executive orders on
July 26 to establish a Fair Employment Board to promote
nondiscriminatory employment practices in the federal civil service,
and to begin desegregation of the armed services.
In Shelley v. Kraemer, Supreme Court rules 6-0 on May 3 that judicial
enforcement of racially restrictive property covenants is a violation of
the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Democratic national convention adopts liberal platform plank on civil
rights, July 14, causing split in the party, and on July 17 Southern
Dixiecrats hold a States’ Rights convention and nominate Governor
Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president. Truman wins
election, November 2.
The Atlanta branch of the NAACP votes to support a lawsuit filed by King,
Sr., seeking to win equal pay for black teachers.
1950
King, Walter R. McCall, Pearl E. Smith, and Doris Wilson are refused
service by Ernest Nichols at Marys Cafe in Maple Shade, New Jersey.
Nichols fires a gun into the air when they persist in their request for service.
Jackie Robinson plays his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on
April 15, becoming the first African-American player in major league
baseball since the 1880s.
Presidential committee on civil rights submits its report on October 29;
its recommendations include establishing a permanent FEPC with
enforcement powers; ending segregation in the armed forces; and
federal legislation to punish lynching, secure voting rights, and abolish
segregation in interstate transport.
22
1953
1954
Blacks in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, start a bus boycott protesting
discrimination.
On May 17, the Supreme Court rules in Brown v .Board of Education
that public school segregation violates the equal protection clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice
Warren declares that the "separate but equal" doctrine has no place in
public education and requests further argument concerning
implementation.
Department of Defense announces on October 30 that the armed forces
have been fully desegregated.
1955
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy visiting from
Chicago, is beaten and shot to death in Tallahatchie County,
Mississippi, on August 28 after he allegedly whistles at a white
woman; his murder and the acquittal on September 23 of the two white
men charged with the crime attract widespread public attention.
Booker praises three white Southern reporters—Clark Porteous of the
Memphis Press-Scimitar, and W.C. Shoemaker and Jim Featherstone
of the Jackson Daily News—for their willingness to collaborate in the
hunt to find key missing witnesses in the Till case, and cites Jimmy
Hicks of the Afro-American, Cloyte Murdock and David Jackson of
Ebony-Jet, and L. Alex Wilson of the Chicago Defender as noteworthy
members of the black press corps covering the trial.
Interstate Commerce Commission rules on November 7 that segregated
seating on interstate buses and trains is a violation of the Interstate
Commerce Act.
Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1 for
violating the municipal bus segregation ordinance. Montgomery
Improvement Association is organized at mass meeting held on
December 5 to conduct boycott of city buses, and the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. is elected as its president.
23
University of Alabama admits Autherine Lucy as its first AfricanAmerican student, February 3, after prolonged litigation in federal
court. White students and Tuscaloosa residents riot on February 6, and
Lucy is suspended, allegedly for her own safety; she is later expelled
for criticizing the university.
Special session of the Virginia legislature in August adopts program of
“massive resistance” to school desegregation that calls for the closing
of schools under desegregation orders.
1956
Governor Frank Clement orders the National Guard to restore order in
Clinton, Tennessee, on September 2 after white mobs attempt to block
the desegregation of the high school.
Supreme Court affirms ruling of lower federal court in Browder v.
Gayle declaring segregation on Alabama intrastate buses to be
unconstitutional, November 13.
Montgomery boycott ends on December 21 as municipal buses begin
operating on a desegregated basis.
Chicago Defender begins publishing daily. Founded in 1905, the
Defender was the nation's most influential black weekly newspaper by
the advent of World War I, with more than two thirds of its readership
outside the Chicago area. The Defender did not use the words "Negro"
or "black" in its pages. Instead, African Americans were referred to as
"the Race" and black men and women as "Race men and Race
women." It remains the largest black-owned newspaper in the world.
24
Southern Negro Leadership Conference on Transportation and
Nonviolent Integration (later known as the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference) is organized in Atlanta on January 11 with
King as its chairman.
Ghana becomes independent, March 6, beginning period of
decolonization in sub-Saharan Africa.
1957
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), minister of Temple No. 7 of the
Nation of Islam since 1954, leads demonstration outside a police
station in Harlem, April 14, to protest the beating of a Black Muslim
and demand his transfer to a hospital.
First federal civil rights bill since 1875 is passed on August 29 after it
is significantly weakened in the Senate to avoid a filibuster. The act
makes conspiring to deny citizens their right to vote in federal
elections a federal crime and gives federal prosecutors the power to
obtain injunctions against discriminatory practices used to deny
citizens their voting rights.
1958
On September 12 the Court decides Cooper v. Aaron, unanimously
overturning a district court decision allowing the Little Rock
school board to postpone desegregation until 1960 because of the
threat of continued violence.
1959
The Little Rock Nine: Federal district court orders nine AfricanAmerican students admitted to Central High School in Little Rock,
Arkansas, on September 3, but Governor Orval Faubus uses the
National Guard to prevent them from entering the school. After the
district court orders Faubus to end his interference on September 20,
the governor withdraws the Guard, and on September 23 the students
are attacked by a large mob. Students are escorted to class by armed
soldiers on September 25.
John Howard Griffin, a white writer, undergoes medical treatments in
order to darken his skin. He publishes the first accounts of his
experiences "passing" as a Negro in Sepia, later collecting them in his
best-selling book Black Like Me (1961).
25
Vocabulary
Ashanti Empires – a dynasty that prevailed in Western Africa, near present day Ghana (known
in colonial times as the Gold Coast), from about 300 A.D. to 1200 A.D. Many of the slaves who
were brought to America came from the Gold Coast.
Assimilationism – a term used to denote the belief in the incorporation of one group into another.
Specifically, in the case of Raisin, Beneatha uses it to mean black people who deny their own
cultural heritage to fit into the prevailing white society.
Bantu – an African people native to the equatorial and southern regions of the continent.
Beneatha remarks about poetry in Bantu.
Buckingham Palace – The London resident of the royal family of Great Britain.
Civil – a minimum level of courtesy and politeness.
Clybourn Park – a fictional neighborhood in Chicago, where Lena Younger buys a home.
Colonel McCormick – owner of the Chicago Tribune in the 1950s.
Colonialism – control by one power over a dependent area or people; a policy based on such
control. Beneatha refers to colonialism in Africa, where for more than 300 years the native people
were controlled by colonial governments in Europe.
Cracker – a slang term meaning “white person.”
Ethopia – a nation in eastern Africa bordering on the Red Sea, site of an ancient civilization. The
earliest evidence of ancient mankind has been found in Ethopia.
“Garbo Routine” – silence and reserve. Refers to the film star Greta Garbo, the most admired
screen actress of the 1920s who, after retiring young, refused to be interviewed or appear in
public, and lived a secretive and secluded life until her death.
Ghetto – a city neighborhood notable for poor conditions and overcrowding, where a minority
group is forced to live because of social, legal or economic pressure.
Heathenism – an uncivilized, irreligious manner of living.
Ku Klux Klan – a post-Civil War secret society advocating white supremecy. It has evolved into
a secret fraternal group held to confine its membership to American-born white Christians.
Liberia – an African nation founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society as a place to
send free blacks from the United States. Comes from the root word meaning “liberty.”
“Monsieur Le Petit-Bourgeois (French) – “Mr. Middle Class.” Beneatha uses the phrase to
make fun of Walter Lee’s desire to raise himself up as part of the middle class power structure by
owning his own business.
26
NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an association
dedicated to ending racial discrimination in America. The NAACP was founded in New York
City in 1909 with a merging of the Niagara movement of black scholar and social leader W.E.B.
DuBois and a group of concerned whites. The NAACP is still one of the largest and most
influential antidiscrimination/racial equality organizations in the U.S. today. In 1982, it had a
membership of more than 500,000 people.
Napoleon (1769-1821) – French military hero and emperor. One of the greatest military leaders
of all time, he led the French army to a successful conquest of most of Europe in the early 19th
century, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and was exiled to the British island of
St. Helena.
Nigeria – the most populous nation in Africa and home to many tribal dynasties of the Yoruba,
the Songhay, and the Benin. The British established Nigeria as a colonial protectorate in 1906.
Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in 1960.
Prometheus – a Greek mythological figure who was a Titan (precursors to the Greek gods).
Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. He also taught mankind many arts and
sciences. In retaliation, Zeus, king of the gods, chained Prometheus to a mountain where an eagle
each day ate out his liver. Each night the liver would grow back, to be eaten again at daylight.
Queen of the Nile – name for Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Used to refer to Beneatha’s wrapping
herself in the Nigerian robes given her by Asagai, and to her acting like a regal African queen.
Sharecropper – a tenant farmer who farms land owned by another, often with tools and seed
provided by the landlord, and in exchange receives a portion of the resulting harvest. In the
southern United States, this system was abused to keep blacks economically dependent.
Songhay Civilization – the Songhay empire was the largest ancient empire of West Africa, in the
region that is now Mali. Founded around 700 A.D., became Muslim in 1000 A.D. and ended in
1700 A.D.
South Side – a neighborhood in Chicago that is largely poor and mainly African-American.
The Man/Captain Boss/Mistuh Charley/Mr. Bossman – slang terms used by AfricanAmericans for a white man, originally an overseer or boss.
Titan – any of the early deities of Greek mythology, the progenitors of the Greek gods. The titans
were the children of Uranus and Gaea (heaven and earth).
Uncle Tom – from the character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It
became a denigrating slang term used to describe African-Americans.
Washington, Booker T. – black American educator (1856-1915), born a mulatto slave, and
founded the Tuskegee Institute, a school for blacks at Tuskegee, Alabama. It became one of the
leading black educational institutions in America aimed at providing a means of economic
independence. Washington was an active orator, but drew opposition from other black leaders
including W.E.B. DuBois for maintaining that it was pointless for blacks to demand social
equality before attaining economic independence through education.
Yoruba – a tribe native to the African country of Nigeria.
27
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Who’s Who in the Company
Adeoye (Joseph Asagai) is making his Kansas City Repertory Theatre debut in A Raisin
in the Sun. At the University of Chicago, where he earned his B.A. in Law, Letters, and
Society, he performed in Jean Anouilh’s Léocadia, David Mamet’s Edmund, and Neil
Simon’s Rumors. Outside of the university, he performed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. Most recently he was a member of the workshop of Without A Song at the
Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Next season, Adeoye will appear on the television
series “Prison Break.”
David Alan Anderson (Walter) is appearing for the first time at Kansas City Rep. He is
a company member of Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, where his credits include Jitney,
King Hedley II, Seven Guitars, and Two Trains Running, all directed by Lou Bellamy. He
makes his home in Indianapolis and has appeared at Indiana Repertory Theatre in Fences,
directed by Marion McClinton, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, and most
recently as Adam in Searching for Eden. His other recent portrayals include Alonzo
Fields in the one-actor play Looking Over the President’s Shoulder at Delaware Theatre
Company, the title role in Macbeth at St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, and Sam in
Blues for an Alabama Sky at Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Berkshire Theatre
Festival. Mr. Anderson also teaches, directs and works in film and television.
Damron Russel Armstrong (Bobo) last appeared at the Rep in Antigone. He is a
familiar face in Kansas City, having performed at the Coterie Theatre in Dinosaur,
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, The Wind in the Willows, A
Wrinkle in Time, and Island of the Blue Dolphins, at the Unicorn Theatre in Roberts
Room, The Exonerated, TopDog/UnderDog, BatBoy the Musical, In the Blood, Betrayal
of the Black Jesus and The Old Settler, and at Late Night Theatre in The Stepford Wives
and Valley of the Dolls.
Franchelle Stewart Dorn (Lena Younger) is making her Kansas City Rep debut in A
Raisin in the Sun. Her extensive regional theatre credits include many productions for the
Shakespeare Theatre of Washington (Helen Hayes Awards for excellence for Mourning
Becomes Electra and The Winter’s Tale and four additional nominations) and at Arena
Stage (Helen Hayes Award for The Visit). She has been featured at American
Conservatory Theater of San Francisco, Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut, Great Lakes
Theater Company and State Theatre Company and Zachary Scott Theatre Center in
Austin (two Austin Critics’ Circle Awards). Her film and television credits include Die
Hard With A Vengeance, Chances Are, Raise The Titanic, and in the PBS series “Literary
Vision.” Ms. Dorn earned her M.F.A. at Yale School of Drama. She is currently head of
the acting program in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas.
George Forbes (Mover) returns to the Rep having last appeared as one of the on-stage
musicians in the world premiere of Carter’s Way. Mr. Forbes also has been an
understudy for and appeared in several performances of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
28
He recently appeared in the UMKC Department of Theatre production of The Darker
Face of the Earth. Mr. Forbes’ film credits include Kevin Wilmott’s C.S.A., which will
have its Kansas City premiere in February.
Kyle Haden (George) is appearing for the first time at the Rep. He has acted in many
productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,
Twelfth Night, and The Comedy of Errors, and at Colorado Shakespeare Festival in the
title role in Macbeth as well as in Richard III, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest
and Twelfth Night. His New York credits include productions of Browntown, Richard III,
Princess Ivona, Agelina and The Visit. Mr. Haden has appeared in the films Fish Are
Pets, Too, The Black Suit and The Week. He earned his B.A. from Wake Forest
University and his M.F.A. from Columbia University.
Bakesta King (Beneatha) is appearing for the first time at the Rep. In Chicago, where
she resides, she has appeared in A Lesson Before Dying at Steppenwolf Theatre and in
Layla’s Dream and the world premiere of Deep Azure, at Congo Square Theatre
Company, of which she is an ensemble member. She also participated in the workshop of
Deep Azure at the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival in New York. Her credits around the country
include A Raisin in the Sun at Studio Arena in Buffalo, The Bride at Warehouse Theatre
in Washington, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shakespeare Theatre in
Washington. Ms. King earned her B.F.A. from Howard University, her M.F.A. from the
University of Illinois, and she has received additional training at the British American
Drama Academy in Oxford, England. She is an adjunct professor at Loyola University.
Larry Paulsen (Karl Lindner) is appearing in his eighth production at the Rep having
been featured as Ficsur in Liliom, Bensinger in The Front Page, and the Dauphin in Saint
Joan. He has also acted in Indian Ink, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Winter’s Tale,
and Machinal. Mr. Paulsen previously was in six Peter Altman productions at Boston’s
Huntington Theatre Company: The Mikado, The Shaughraun, the world premiere of The
Last Hurrah, Gross Indecency, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mary Stuart. In New
York, Mr. Paulsen has acted in Julius Caesar at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and
as Camillo in The Winter’s Tale at Classic Stage Company. His other credits include The
Chosen and Inspecting Carol at Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Three Sisters and Our
Town at Intiman Theatre, Changes of Heart at Mark Taper Forum, Death of a Salesman
and Pirates at South Coast Repertory, The Tempest at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and
Absurd Person Singular, Sunsets and Glories, Four Our Fathers, The Marriage of Bette
and Boo, and Our Country’s Good at ACT in Seattle. Most recently he appeared in the
Cleveland Play House production of Room Service. He spent eight seasons as a company
member with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has also performed at Arizona Theatre
Company, Denver Center Theatre, Portland Center Stage, San Diego Repertory Theatre,
Alaska Rep, and the Empty Space.
Ralph Prosper (Moving Man) is making his Rep debut in A Raisin in the Sun. Mr.
Prosper is a graduate student in acting at UMKC and has appeared in department of
theatre productions of The Darker Face of the Earth, Measure for Measure, The Moliere
One Acts, The Circus Show, Julius Caesar, Henry V, As You Like It, and Antigone.
29
Shané Williams (Ruth) is making her Kansas City Rep debut in A Raisin in the Sun. Ms.
Williams’ Chicago credits include Permanent Collection, Bee-Luther-Hatchee and My
Other Heart at Northlight Theatre, One Arm and Our Lady of 121st Street at Steppenwolf
Theatre, the world premiere of Comfortable Shoes (Black Theatre Alliance nomination as
best actress in a musical) at Royal George Theater, Drowning Crow (BTAA nomination
for best featured actress), Black Star Line and Spunk (Jefferson Award nomination for
Best Actress) at the Goodman Theatre, Othello at Court Theatre, and Pecong! at Victory
Gardens Theater. Her regional credits include Intimate Apparel at Center Stage in
Baltimore and at South Coast Repertory Theatre (NAACP Theatre nomination for Best
Ensemble) and productions at San Diego Repertory Theatre and Penumbra Theatre. Her
film and television experience includes The Weatherman with Nicholas Cage, Uncle
Nino, Life Sentence, With Honors, Chicago Cab, “Early Edition”, “Missing Persons”,
“Gabriel’s Fire” with James Earl Jones, and “The Howard Beach Story: A Case for
Murder”. She teaches acting at the theatre school of DePaul University.
Rasson Wofford (Travis) is making his Rep debut in A Raisin in the Sun. He has
appeared in Circus Hilarious at the Coterie Theatre, Are You Topia at KC Fringe
Festival/In Play, The Wizard of Oz at Theatre for Young America, Annie and The Wizard
of Oz at Starlight Theater, and Once on This Island and Annie, Jr. for Urban Youth
Theater and Peter Pan for Kiwanis Excelsior Springs . He has also performed in Polar
Express with the Kansas City Symphony and appeared in the movie Lenexa, 1 Mile. Mr.
Wofford is in the fifth grade at Barstow School and is a member of Centennial United
Methodist Church.
Chad Zodrow (Production Stage Manager) returns to the Rep having stage managed the
world premiere of Carter’s Way, Two Trains Running and Metamorphoses. He has
served as a staff stage manager at New York City Opera for a season and his regional
stage management credits include Yuletide Celebration 2005 with the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra, Big River and Tartuffe at Weston Playhouse in Vermont, and The
Impresario and Dr. Miracle at Atlanta Opera. He also has served as assistant stage
manager for many productions including The Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the
Rosemont Theatre in Chicago, Oklahoma!, Proof, The School for Wives and The
Threepenny Opera for Weston Playhouse, and Ring Round the Moon and Uncle Vanya
(directed by Risa Brainin) for American Players Theatre in Wisconsin. Mr. Zodrow
earned his B.S. in speech from Northwestern University.
Christine M. Dotterweich (Assistant Stage Manager) returns to the Rep having been
assistant stage manager for Man and Superman. At the University of New Mexico, where
she taught stage management, she has served as production manager for many
productions including The Marriage of Figaro, Into the Woods, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, and Nickel and Dimed. In New York, she was stage manager at La Mama, Etc.
and has worked as production coordinator and as associate production manager for
Roundabout Theatre Company, where her assignments included the Tony Award
nominated The Rainmaker and Uncle Vanya as well as the Off-Broadway American
30
premieres of A Skull in Connemara and Blue. Ms. Dotterweich earned her M.A. in
performance studies from New York University.
Lou Bellamy (Director) continues his work with Kansas City Rep having directed Two
Trains Running last season. He is the founder and artistic director of Saint Paul’s
Penumbra Theatre and during his twenty-nine year tenure, Penumbra has evolved into
one of America’s premier theatres dedicated to exploration of the African-American
experience. Mr. Bellamy’s most recent directing projects include On the Open Road,
Dinah Was!, King Hedley II, Black Eagles, Louie and Ophelia, Riffs, Jitney, Blues for an
Alabama Sky, Hospice, Seven Guitars, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A Raisin in
the Sun, and Two Trains Running at Penumbra, Angels in America, A Lie of the Mind,
Tod, the boy Tod, and Wedding Band at University of Minnesota Theater, and The
Darker Face of the Earth and Big White Fog at the Guthrie Theater. He holds degrees
from Mankato State University, Hamline University and the University of Minnesota,
where he is an Associate Professor in the Theatre and Dance Department. Mr. Bellamy
was appointed a McKnight Fellow to the Salzburg Seminar in Theater and is an executive
board member of the African Grove Institute for the Arts. He has been honored with the
W. Harry Davis Foundation Award for Excellence in Afro-Centric Education, the
Minnesota Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award, the National Association of
Negro Musicians, Inc. Distinguished Contribution Award, and the First Bank Sally
Ervine Ordway Arts Award of Commitment.
Vicki M. Smith (set designer) returns to Kansas City Rep where she has designed the set
for Two Trains Running, The Imaginary Invalid and The Gin Game. She has designed
more than thirty-five productions at Denver Center Theatre, most recently A Christmas
Carol. Her extensive regional theatre design credits also include productions at Cleveland
Play House, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arizona
Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Seattle Repertory Theatre, A
Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, Alley Theatre in Houston, Berkley Repertory Theatre
and San Jose Repertory Theatre. Ms. Smith earned her M.F.A. in technical theatre
and an M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Washington.
Mathew J. LeFebvre (costume designer) is continuing his design work at Kansas City
Rep, having designed the costumes for Two Trains Running. His recent design credits
include the Off-Broadway premiere of Bach at Leipzig for the New York Theatre
Workshop, A Flea In Her Ear and Bach at Leipzig for Milwaukee Repertory Theater and
Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, a co-production between Penumbra Theatre and
Trinity Repertory Theatre. His additional Penumbra costume credits include On the Open
Road, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Someplace Soft to Fall, Black Eagles, and Jitney. At
the Guthrie Theater his credits include She Loves Me, The Constant Wife, Blue/Orange,
The Night of the Iguana, Pride and Prejudice, Wintertime (for which he also served as
scenic designer) To Fool the Eye, The Plough and the Stars and The School for Scandal.
Mr. LeFebvre has also designed for Theatre de la Jeune Lune and The Minnesota Opera
in Minneapolis, Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, American Players Theatre in
Wisconsin, and the Joyce Theatre in New York.
31
Comprehension: A Raisin in the Sun
To measure student comprehension of the play, use the following questions for
discussion, or as a “test.”
ACT ONE
1. Why did Walter ask Ruth what was wrong with her?
2. Why was Ruth upset when Walter gave Travis the money?
3. Walter said, "Damn my eggs . . . damn all the eggs that ever was!" Why?
4. Why was Mama getting a check for $10,000?
5. What was Beneatha’s attitude towards God?
6. Who is Joseph Asagai?
7. What did Ruth find out at the doctor’s office?
8. What is Asagai’s nickname and why is it appropriate?
9. Why did Mama call Walter a disgrace to his father’s memory?
10. Where did Ruth actually go instead of the doctor's office?
32
ACT TWO
1. What was Beneatha’s family doing when George came in?
2. What are “assimilationist Negroes”?
3. What did Mama do with her money?
4. What was Walter’s reaction to Mama’s purchase? Ruth’s reaction?
5. How did Ruth find out Walter hadn’t been going to work? Where had he been
going instead?
6. Who was Karl Lindner and why did he visit the Younger family?
ACT THREE
1. Why didn’t Beneatha want to be a doctor anymore?
2. What does Asagai ask Beneatha to do?
3. Why didn’t Walter take the money he was offered?
4. Did the Youngers stay or move?
33
ANSWER KEY
Act One
1. Why did Walter ask Ruth what was wrong with her?
She was kind-of crabby and tired-looking.
2. Why was Ruth upset when Walter gave Travis the money?
They didn't have money to spare. Also, Walter didn't back her up; he undermined her
authority as a parent.
3. Walter said, "Damn my eggs . . . damn all the eggs that ever was!" Why?
He has been telling Ruth about his dream and she tells him to eat his eggs. He wants to
talk and dream of a better life; she wants him to face reality and deal with his present
world. This makes him frustrated, makes him feel like she doesn't support him.
5. Why was Mama getting a check for $10,000?
It was money coming from her husband's life insurance policy.
6. What was Beneatha's attitude towards God?
She said she did not accept the idea of God -- "there is only man and it is he who makes
miracles.
7. Who is Joseph Asagai?
He is a school friend of Beneatha and an African intellectual.
8. What did Ruth find out at the doctor's office?
She was pregnant.
9. What is Asagai's nickname and why is it appropriate?
It means "One for Whom Bread - Food - Is Not Enough." It is appropriate because he as
well as Beneatha and Walter want more from life than just survival. They want a better
quality of life.
10. Why did Mama call Walter a disgrace to his father's memory?
He had become overly concerned with money and had lost his traditional family values,
so much so that he didn't try to convince Ruth not to have an abortion.
11. Where did Ruth actually go instead of the doctor's office?
She went to see a woman about having an abortion.
34
Act Two
1. What was Beneatha's family doing when George came in?
Beneatha was in Nigerian dress. Beneatha and Walter were dancing and singing Nigerian
songs. They looked rather crazy, and Walter was quite drunk.
2. What are "assimilationist Negroes"?
"Someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself in the
dominant, and in this case, oppressive culture."
3. What did Mama do with her money?
She bought (made a down payment on) a home.
4. What was Walter's reaction to Mama's purchase? Ruth's reaction?
Walter was very disappointed. Ruth was elated.
5. How did Ruth find out Walter hadn't been going to work? Where had he been going?
Walter's boss called. He had been driving and walking and watching people.
6. Who was Karl Lindner, and why did he visit the Youngers' house?
He was from Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He was calling to ask the
Youngers not to move into their white neighborhood. The association members were
willing to pay the Youngers not to move in.
ACT THREE
1. Why didn't Beneatha want to be a doctor anymore?
She used to think that fixing people's ailments was the best thing to do. Now she thinks
that physical ailments aren't the problem of society. People's hearts aren't true. She gives
up on the human race and calls them "puny, small, and selfish." She sees no human battle
worth fighting.
2. What does Asagai ask Beneatha to do?
He asks her to marry him and return to Africa with him to live.
3. Why didn't Walter take the money?
Walter is a good, decent man underneath. His conscience and moral upbringing wouldn't
let him ruin his family's pride.
7. Did the Youngers stay or move?
They did move.
35
Short-Term Projects
Kansas City Rep is pleased to offer an exclusive online project related to Dr. King’s “I
Have a Dream” speech at http:\\www.kcrep.org
PROJECT: Understanding Budgets. The Younger family wouldn’t be able to afford all
their dreams on $10,000, so they have to make choices. To help students understand the
role of money, they will plan meals for a family of four for a week on a $50.00 budget.
Materials:
Calculator
Internet connection
Grocery store sale circulars
Procedure:
1. Students are given a scenario of a family of four who cannot afford to spend more than
$50.00 per week on food.
2. Teams will be assigned to develop three meals for each day of the week.
3. Each team will make a grocery list for the meals planned.
4. Using the grocery store sales papers and internet, students will list prices beside food
on the grocery list and total the amount.
5. Adjustments to the meals and list can be made until the team's total is under $50.00.
PROJECT: Understanding Chicago. The Younger family lives in Chicago’s South
Side in an area known as “the black belt.” In order for students to appreciate the ethnic
diversity of Chicago and the area in which the play takes place, they will investigate
where different ethnic populations have settled in Chicago and locate them on a map.
Materials:
Reference books or Internet connection
Maps of Chicago
Crayons or color pencils
Procedure:
1. Students are assigned either a particular ethnic population or teams could be
assigned Chicago as a whole.
2. They will investigate where each typically settled in the past, as well as
nicknames given to such neighborhoods as “Ukraine Village” and the “black
belt.”
3. These should be identified with their own particular color on the maps.
Potential Guests:
o Invite a realtor to talk about home ownership
o Invite an elder from the community to share their experiences of how race
relations have changed since the 1950s.
o Invite someone who works for the NAACP or a similar organization to
speak about progress and current issues
36
PROJECT: All in the Families. When A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway, it was
hailed by whites and African Americans as containing “truth.” This seems to be largely
because it was the first play in the American theatre to portray black characters as real
human beings with emotional depth, dreams, joys, and fears. Students will consider what
progress has been made in entertainment since the play premiered.
Materials:
Television and taped episodes of TV series featuring African American families (some
possibilities: Good Times, The Jeffersons, The Cosby Show, My Wife and Kids, Under
One Roof, Bernie Mac, etc.)
Paper and writing instruments
Procedure:
1. Students will first consider stereotypes based on race – what are some of the
common ways African Americans have been stereotyped? What about whites?
Asians? American Indians? What about other ethnic or national origins?
2. Why do they think people have used and/or believed in these stereotypes?
3. What are the stereotypical roles in a family? How have those developed?
4. Either as a group (watching several different shows) or on their own (watching
several episodes of the same series), students will critique television’s portrayal of
African American families.
5. How “true” to they seem? Do they seem to contain or deal with any of the racial
stereotypes already mentioned? What about stereotypes about families and family
roles?
6. How important does the race of the characters seem to be?
7. How have portrayals of African Americans changed since the 1950s?
POST-SHOW PROJECT: Race in Raisin. Following the performance, use the following for
prompts for student discussion or writing.
How important do they think the race of the characters is to the story being told? When does it
become the most important? (Use examples to explain and defend their position.)
Read the following excerpt from Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black:
HANSBERRY: I have told people that not only is this a Negro family, specifically and definitely
culturally, but it's not even a New York family or a southern Negro family. It is specifically
Southside Chicago... So I would say it is definitely a Negro play before it is anything else....
Read the following excerpt from an interview with Lorraine Hansberry:
Interviewer: The question, I'm sure, is asked you many times--you must be tired of it--someone
comes up to you and says: "This is not really a Negro play; why, this could be about anybody! It's
a play about people!" What is your reaction? What do you say?
Hansberry: Well[,] I hadn't noticed the contradiction because I'd always been under the
impression that Negroes are people. . . . One of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in
order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.
What effect do these quotes have on their previous opinions? What does she mean
about the “universal” and the “specific”?
37
Project : Raisin in Time
Objective: Lorraine Hansberry started writing A Raisin in the Sun in 1956 and it
was produced on Broadway in 1959. In the intervening years, she worked with
Lloyd Richards on rewriting the play, and there were significant developments in
the struggle for civil rights. By investigating significant events in the Civil Rights
Movement during this time, students can gain an appreciation of the social
background that informed Hansberry’s thinking in developing the play.
Curriculum Ties:
•
•
Missouri: FA 5, SS 6
Kansas: US History Era 9, Historic
Context of Works of Art
Civil Rights
Ask students, “What is your definition of Civil Rights?” or “Do people have natural rights?”
Some concepts might include:
•
•
•
•
•
The protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all citizens by law.
Civil rights are distinguished from "human rights" or "natural rights"; civil rights are rights that persons
do have, while natural or human rights are rights that many scholars think that people should have.
Others have argued that people acquire rights as an inalienable gift from God or at a time of nature
before governments were formed.
Some people argue that there are no natural rights, since all rights are invented by human beings and
therefore, by definition, are “artificial.”
The rights minority groups (particularly African Americans) have had to fight for, in order to be on a
level playing field with the rest of American culture.
In order to live in a particular society, human beings agree to an implicit social contract, which gives them
certain rights in return for giving up certain freedoms. As such, the rights (and responsibilities) of individuals
are the terms of the social contract, and the state exists for the purpose of enforcing that contract. Also, the
people may change the terms of the contract if they so desire. However, more rights always entail more
responsibilities, and fewer responsibilities always entail fewer rights.
In order to fulfill the social contract of the Unites States Constitution, thousands of activists in the modern
struggle for civil rights won victories that touched the lives of future generations – often against incredible odds
and at great personal risk. There have also been those whose deaths have held significance and strengthened
the fighters, pushing them forward so that “never again” will people have to suffer as they did. Some of the
names are well-known, but there are many more who, in their own ways, have contributed to the fight for Civil
Rights in the United States.
38
Project
• Individually or in teams, have students examine the Subjects for
Study in the right-hand column, or any of the bolded topics in
the Timeline on page___***
• They should present a summary of the significant event
associated with each, including when and where each took place
or originated
• Students should also describe the impact of each on the United
States at large, the African American community, and the civil
rights movement.
Subjects for Study
•
•
•
•
The Death of Emmett Till
Decision in Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka
Desegregation of the Armed
Forces
The arrest of Rosa Parks
Alternately, have students look at magazine and newspaper headlines from 1959, the year A Raisin in the
Sun opened on Broadway.
• What were the “big stories” about?
• What other concerns were there in the United States?
• What else was happening in the world?
• Are there as many stories about blacks as about whites? About women as about men? How much
reporting is there on other ethnic or social minorities? (i.e., Asians, Latinos, homosexuals, American
Indians, Jews)
• What conclusions do students have about what the United States was like in 1959, politically, socially,
culturally, and economically?
Follow-up:
Why was segregation still practiced in southern states in the middle of the 20th century, despite the passage of
constitutional amendments prohibiting segregation following the Civil War? To what extent were things
different in northern states, and why?
Active Audience
Before attending the production, direct students to pay special attention to how the characters’ lives have
been affected by the fight for civil rights, and their attitudes toward how to achieve them.
Connecting in the Classroom
• For Discussion or Writing: What kind of neighborhood do you live in? Are there unspoken rules about
who can live in your neighborhood? Whom would you see as a threat? Whom would you consider an
outsider?
• The end of the play has the Younger family moving into their future. Have students work in small
groups to create the outline of a short (one-act) play that finds the family a few years into the future,
contending with some event of the 1960s. How would the characters have changed? How would their
ages perhaps make their attitudes different? What choices have they made that effect how they are
now? They might have to deal with riots, the war in Vietnam (Travis could be drafted), other Civil
Rights movment events, or even the assassinations of Kennedy, King, or Malcolm X.
39
Project: American Dreams
Objective: Lorraine Hansberry purposely draws our attention to the hopes and
ethnicity of the characters with the title A Raisin in the Sun, from a line in
Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem.”
Curriculum Ties:
•
•
Missouri: CA 7, FA 3
Kansas: Arts Connections,
Montage to a Dream Deferred
Langston Hughes
913/727-2001
As a preface to A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry chose “Montage to a Dream Deferred,” which includes
the following:
I, too, sing America.
“Harlem”
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed I, too, am America.
- Langston Hughes, 1925
40
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?
--Langston Hughes, 1951
PROMPTS FOR DISCUSSION OR WRITING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What do the titles of the poems refer to?
What does Hughes mean by “a dream deferred”? What does each of the images in “Harlem” symbolize?
Taking these two poems together, what is Hughes' message about dreams deferred?
What is Hansberry’s message about the play she has written?
Even written nearly thirty years apart, how do the two poems relate to each other?
How do "dreams deferred" relate to the American Dream?
SOME KEY SYMBOL POINTS:
MAMA’S PLANT: Even from the beginning of the play, Lena (Mama) pays special attention to her plant. Hansberry’s
stage directions state, “She crosses the room, goes to the window, opens it, and brings in a feeble little plant growing
doggedly in a small pot on the wind sill. She feels the dirt and puts it back out.” What does it indicate that she describes
the plant as “growing doggedly”? What does the plant symbolize?
[Mama admits that the plant has never had enough sunshine but still survives, is much like her family, which has never
gotten all that it needs, either, but continues to thrive. Mama’s plant, which is weak but resilient, represents her dream of
living in a bigger house with a lawn. As she tends to her plant, she symbolically shows her dedication to her dream. This
is furthered by her gift of gardening equipment later in the play. In other words, her dream has always been deferred but
still remains strong. At the end of the play, Mama decides to bring the plant with her to their new home, symbolically
taking her “roots” into her new life.]
WALTER’S CAR: As a chauffeur, Walter has been driving cars that belong to other people. It comes as no surprise that
a car would figure into his American dream. As he says, “You wouldn't understand yet, son, but your daddy's gonna
make a transaction ... a business transaction that's going to change our lives ... That's how come one day when you 'bout
seventeen years old I'll come home ... I'll pull the car up on the driveway ... just a plain black Chrysler, I think, with white
walls--no--black tires ... the gardener will be clipping away at the hedges and he'll say, "Good evening, Mr. Younger."
And I'll say, "Hello, Jefferson, how are you this evening?’ And I'll go inside and Ruth will come downstairs and meet me
at the door and we'll kiss each other and she'll take my arm and we'll go up to your room to see you sitting on the floor
with the catalogues of all the great schools in America around you.... All the great schools in the world! And--and I'll say,
all right son--it's your seventeenth birthday, what is it you've decided?... Just tell me, what it is you want to be--and you'll
be it.... Whatever you want to be--Yessir! You just name it, son ... and I hand you the world!"
BENEATHA’S HAIR: While Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor, she is more actively engaged in creating an
identity for herself. She tries to assert her more liberal views in her conventional household, and agrees to abide by her
mother’s wishes. However, when she cuts her straightened hair in favor of a natural, it represents her embracing her
heritage and symbolically asserts that “black is beautiful” several years before it became a motto on the street. She also
illustrates that she is no longer willing to change herself to fit the culture at large, but wants it to accept her as she chooses
to be.
RUTH: Ruth recognizes that the lack of money is restricting her dream because of its effect on Walter, but she is more
focused on relationships than on dollars. Her dream is about having a family around her, in all the best senses of the
word. She comes the closest of the characters to completely giving up her dreams voluntarily. At times, it seems that the
only conversation Walter and Ruth have is the act of arguing, and he even sums up their relationship by saying to her,
“Who even cares about you.” Ruth is able to keep hope alive, however, a hope that she will move on, beyond her present
limitations: “Well-well-all I can say is-if this is my time in life-my time to say good bye-to these goddamned cracking
walls! and these marching roaches!...and good bye misery... I don’t never want to see your ugly face again.” Her dream is
symbolized by something we cannot see: her unborn child.
41
SPECIAL REFERENCE
[From the AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS FOUNDATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
At http://www.abffe.com/black_history_month_2003.html.]
Black History Month is a good time to remember that many books written by African-Americans have been
challenged or banned, including A Raisin in the Sun. In some cases, people have objected to some of the
same things they oppose in works by white authors-- sexual content, offensive language, "anti-American"
content. However, many of the objections are related to race. Some protestors deny the existence of racism
and oppose the portrayal of problems that arise from it. Others believe that some of these books are antiwhite. Some African- Americans are offended by the use of racial slurs and the portrayal of black life in
books like The Color Purple.
Titles Challenged or Banned Written by or Concerning African-Americans
Ralph Abernathy
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Burned in protest in Denver, Colorado, in 1989
because it alleged that Martin Luther King, Jr.
committed adultery.
Arnold Adoff
Poetry of Black America
Challenged at a Florida library in 1996 because of
violence and references to abortion.
Maya Angelou
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Challenged, removed, rejected or banned 33 times
throughout the 80's, 90's and 2000 because of antiwhite sentiment, offensive language and sexual
content.
William Armstrong
Sounder
Challenged in the Rockingham County, North
Carolina, schools because of the use of racial slurs.
Blues for Mr. Charlie
Challenged in South Dakota in 1980 because it
"tears down Christian principles."
If Beale Street Could Talk
Removed from an Oregon high school library in
1989 because of offensive language and depictions
of sexual activity.
Claude Brown
Manchild in the Promised Land
Removed or restricted at school libraries/challenged
at an Oregon high school because of offensive
language. Critics also claimed that students didn't
need to "understand life in a black ghetto."
Eldridge Cleaver: Soul on Ice
Barred from black studies courses in California
public schools in 1969 and challenged in three other
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Rodger Abrahms
African Folktales: Traditional Stores of the Black
World
Challenged in Dallas, Texas, in 1991 by school
administrators because of references to male
genitals and bodily functions.
Rae Alexander
Young and Black in America
Restricted to students with parental permission in
Elk River, Minnesota schools. The ACLU of
Minnesota sued the school and forced it to reverse
its decision.
And Still I Rise
Challenged three times in the 1980's in Louisiana,
North Carolina and Washington, because of
offensive language.
James Baldwin
Another County
Banned from New Orleans Public Library in 1963
because it was considered obscene. Restored in
1964 after litigation.
Go Tell It On The Mountain
Challenged twice in the 1990's because of sexual
content.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
Rejected by the Alabama State Textbook
Committee in 1983 because it preaches "bitterness
and hatred against whites."
Alice Childress
Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich
Removed from three school libraries because of
offensive language, later reinstated in two.
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Excerpts of the book were banned in Butler,
Pennsylvania, schools; removed from high school
schools because of offensive language, sexual
content and anti-American sentiment.
Ernest Gaines
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Removed from eighth grade Conroe, Texas, class
because of racial slurs; later reinstated by school
officials.
John Griffin
Black Like Me
Challenged five times since the 1960's because of
offensive language and in a Missouri public school
in 1982 because of "black people being in the
book."
Lorraine Hansberry
Raisin in the Sun
A school district in Utah restricted circulation of the
play in 1979 because of criticism from an antipornography organization.
Carolivia Herron
Nappy Hair
Challenged by black parents in Brooklyn, New
York, because they believed it was racially
insensitive.
Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Challenged because of sexual content in a Virginia
high school.
Randall Kenan
James Baldwin
Removed from Anaheim, California middle school
libraries because officials said it is too difficult and
that it could cause harassment against students seen
carrying it. The American Civil Liberties Union of
Southern California filed suit in Doe v. Anaheim
Union High School District alleging that the
removal is a "a pretext for viewpoint based
censorship." The ACLU claims works by
Shakespeare and Dickens, with more difficult
reading, have not been removed. The ACLU
contends the real objection is that the book contains
references to homosexuality.
Patricia McKissack
Mirandy and Brother Wind
Challenged at a Florida elementary school in 1991
because of the book's use of black dialect.
Eve Merriam
Inner City Mother Goose
Removed from the Whitney Point, New York,
middle school library after a parent complained
about its offensive language.
reading lists of a Wisconsin school and challenged
in a Washington high school because of offensive
language, violence and sexual content.
Nikki Giovanni
My House
Banned from a Wisconsin public school and
challenged at two schools in New York and Florida
because of offensive language, sexual content and
"racism."
Alex Haley, Malcolm X
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Challenged in Duval County and Jacksonville,
Florida public schools in 1993 and 1994 because it
was considered racist toward whites.
Marcy Heidish
Woman Called Moses
Removed from a North Carolina school library
because of offensive language.
Langston Hughes
Best Short Stories by Negro Writers
This title and nine others were removed from the
library by the Island Trees, New York, school
district. Titles were considered "anti-American."
Reinstated after a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Jesse Jackson
Call Me Charley
Challenged because of racial slurs.
Mark Mathbane
Kaffir Boy
Challenged at eight schools because of sexual
content and offensive language.
Louise Meriwether
Daddy Was a Numbers Runner
Removed from Oakland, California, junior high
school libraries in 1977 because of its depiction of
inner-city life.
Toni Morrison
Beloved
Challenged four times in the 1990's because of
violence and offensive language.
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The Bluest Eye
Challenged four times, removed from a classroom
and reading list and banned from one school in the
1990's because of sexual content and offensive
language.
Sula
Challenged in 2000 in a Maryland High School for
sexual content and offensive language.
Walter Dean Myers
Young Martin's Promise
A school board member in Queens, New York,
challenged this title because of opposition to the
political ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr. The book
was retained.
Faith Ringgold
Tar Beach
Challenged in Spokane, Washington, elementary
school because of the way it portrays AfricanAmericans.
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
Challenged 11 times; only available with parental
permission in one school; removed from two school
libraries; rejected for purchase by one school
district, and banned from another. Most censorship
attempts were brought because of offensive
language, sexual content and a "negative image of
black men."
Margaret Walker
Jubilee
Challenged in Greenville County, South Carolina,
school libraries in 1977 by the Ku Klux Klan, which
claimed the novel creates "racial strife and hatred."
Chancellor Williams
Destruction of African Civilization and the Origin
of African Civilization
Challenged in Prince George County, Maryland,
high school libraries because of "racism against
white people."
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Song of Solomon
Challenged in two schools, removed from the
required reading list and approved text list of two
other schools in the 1990's because of offensive
language and sexual content.
April Sinclair
Coffee Will Make You Black
Removed from the curriculum in Chicago, Illinois,
schools in 1996 because of offensive language.
Dudley Randall
Black Poets
Banned from classroom use in Tinely Park, Illinois,
in 1982 because of the book's depiction of unlawful
acts.
Mildred Taylor
Friendship
Challenged in a Maryland school system in 1997
because the book was considered to have "no
redeeming value."
Temple of My Familiar
Removed from a West Virginia school library in
1997.
Terry Wallace
Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by
Black Veterans
Banned from a middle school library in Spring Hill,
Florida, in 1987 because of offensive language.
Richard Wright
Native Son
Challenged or banned eight times in schools
because of violence, offensive language and sexual
content.
RESOURCES
PRINT:
Carter, Steven. Hansberry’s Drama. Penguin Books, 1993.
Cheney, Anne. Lorraine Hansberry; Twayne Publishers, 1984.
Domina, Lynn. Understanding A Raisin in the Sun; Greenwood Publishing Group 1998
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gurbar, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The
Traditions in English; W.W. Norton and Company, 1985.
Hughes, Langston, and Milton Meltzer, eds. Black Magic: A Pictorial History of Black
Entertainers in America; Bonanza Books, 1967.
Kappel, Lawrence, ed. Readings on a Raisin in the Sun; The Greenhaven Press Literary
Companion to American Literature, 2000
Leeson, Richard. Lorraine Hansberry A Research and Production Sourcebook Greenwood Press,
1997.
Nemiroff, Robert, ed. A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay. New York:
Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1992.
Phillips, Elizabeth C., The Works of Lorraine Hansberry: A Critical Commentary; Monarch
Press, 1973.
Scheader, Catherine, They Found a Way: Lorraine Hansberry; Campus Publications, 1978.
Wilkerson, Margaret, ed. Nine Plays by Black Women; New American Library, 1986.
Williams, Lorraine A., Africa and the Afro-American Experience: Eight Essays,; Howard
University, 1977
LINKS:
San Antonio College LitWeb: Lorraine Hansberry
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/hansberr.htm
Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/LorraineHansberry.html
Perspectives in American Literature: Lorraine Hansberry
http://www.csustan.edu/english/Reuben/pal/Chap8/hansberry.html
Lorraine Hansberry on SwissEduc: http://www.swisseduc.ch/english/readinglist/hansberryl/
Hansberry, Lorraine: http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_796.htm
Voices from the Gaps: Lorraine Hansberry
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/LorraineHansberry.html
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