by Lorraine Hansberry

 Lorraine Hansberry   Born in Chicago  African American playwright  Speeches  Letters  Essays

 Written in 1959, Hansberry’s most famous work  Produced as a film in 1961  The first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway  Contains many social issues of the 1950's, including feminism, gender roles, the black family, and the pan-African movement  Was the basis for the musical Raisin, which opened in 1973  Was revived as A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 2004, featuring Sean Combs as Walter Lee Younger  Won a Tony Award  Was produced for TV in 2008

 Southside Chicago Ghetto in the 1940s-1950s  Where most African Americans lived  Overpriced, overcrowded, and poorly maintained apartments and homes  High crime rates, limited public services  Segregated housing caused by the housing market; real estate agents perpetuated it “Blockbusting” Doubled a real estate agent’s profits in only 2 years A practice that involved real estate agents taking advantage of the whites’ fears of integration and the blacks’ desire to escape the ghetto

 A real estate agent would encourage a black family to move to an all-white neighborhood, where housing costs were much lower than black neighborhoods.  Because of the low cost, some black families would attempt to move, despite threats from future white neighbors.  After the black family moved in, nervous white families became afraid that their property values would crash.  The real estate agent would then purchase the homes of many white families for well below their market value.  Then, they would resell the same homes well above their market value to black families wanting to flee the ghetto.  Whites who experienced blockbusting held hard feelings towards blacks which sometimes turned violent.

 In 1917, the Chicago Real Estate Board condemned the sale and rental of housing to blacks outside of city blocks around the ghetto.  Blacks interested in a home or apartment were usually shown only ghettos or transition neighborhoods.  Real estate agents limited blacks' housing options by rarely offering them housing opportunities outside the ghetto.  The real estate industry literally trapped the black family in the ghetto.

 Landlords charged black families high prices for low quality housing  The average black family in the ghetto had to pay 10% more in housing taxes and fees than in a comparable white neighborhood.  Higher housing costs limited opportunities by taking away a large portion of their income.  Most white landlords did not maintain their properties in these areas, leading to poor living conditions.  Segregation was supported by the government too  Federal housing programs after the Great Depression favored homogenous neighborhoods in the belief that there would be less racial conflict

 Essentially, black families were charged more money for poorer housing, and could not save enough money to move out.  When they tried to move out, they were only shown overpriced homes in the ghettos and were run out of white neighborhoods.

 When Lorraine Hansberry was a child, her family moved into a white neighborhood and their neighbors filed a lawsuit to evict them.  The local Chicago government was going to evict them from their new home but Lorraine's father took their case to court and won the right to stay (with the help of the NAACP)  After this, "howling mobs" surrounded the Hansberry's house.  In one instance, a brick was thrown through their window so hard it missed Lorraine’s head and stuck in the wall

 Whites feared integration was a threat to their security and the place they called home  Moving to a white neighborhood could be deadly for black families.  From 1944 to 1946 there were over 46 arson bombings within Chicago directed at black homes on the outskirts of the ghetto.  In 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) marched against segregated housing in Chicago.  In one march, 500 black protesters were attacked by 4000 angry whites  The KKK and the American Nazi party came to Chicago during this time because conditions were ripe for new recruits

 The Younger Family  Walter Lee Younger – main character  Ruth Younger – Walter’s wife  Travis Younger – Walter and Ruth’s son  Lena Younger – Walter’s mother  Beneatha “Bennie” Younger – Walter’s sister  Joseph Asagai – one of Beneatha’s suitors  George Murchison – one of Beneatha’s suitors  Mrs. Johnson – a family friend  Karl Linder – representative from Clybourne Park  Bobo – a friend of Walter’s

 Stage directions: notes from the playwright about how things should be performed on stage  Includes: elements of spectacle, description of entrances and exits, the movement of characters, facial expressions, gestures, background information  Staging: the process of selecting, designing, and modifying the performance space for a play or film

 Lighting: used on stage to convey emotions or mood, start actions, establish the time of day, or simply so that the audience can see the action on stage  Dialogue: a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people

 Symbolism: using an object, word, event, or character to represent something else  Example: The American Flag  Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces  Either internal or external  Characterization: the method a writer uses to develop a character  What the character looks like  How the character thinks, feels, acts, and speaks  What other characters think, feel, act, and say to/about the character

 Character Motivation: the explanation for why a character thinks, feels, or behaves a certain way  Dialect: a variation of a given language spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people  People pronounce things differently, use different grammar, and have a different vocabulary based on their culture