Introduction to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

Social Background Published in 1959, four years after Rosa Parks’ was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus, sparking the Civil Rights Movement, Hansberry’s play illustrates black America’s struggle to gain equal access to opportunity and expression of cultural identity.

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

In 1956, King leads a boycott of the bus laws.

In 1954, the Supreme Court found in favor of the plaintiffs in the Brown v. The Board of Education case. However, the segregation of schools didn’t begin to take effect until 1957. Moreover, the case’s decision did not abolish segregation in other public areas, such as restaurants and restrooms.

Hansberry’s Background

1930-1965 A Raisin…is the 1st play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway Other Works: WHAT USE ARE FLOWERS? THE MOVEMENT: DOCUMENTARY OF A STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY, THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN' WINDOWTO BE YOUNG, GIFTED, AND BLACK: LES BLANCS: THE COLLECTED LAST PLAYS: The Drinking Gourd / What Use Are Flowers?

The Author HANSBERRY, Lorraine (1930-65). Playwright. Born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. Her father, a real estate broker, fought for years against restricted housing. Before his Supreme Court victory, the family integrated a white neighborhood. Still disillusioned with prospects for black equality, the family relocated to Mexico. Before moving to New York City in 1950,Hansberry studied painting in Chicago and Mexico. In 1959 'A Raisin in the Sun'- was the first Broadway play produced, directed, and performed by blacks-by a black woman. Adapted as 'Raisin', it won a Tony for best musical in 1974. Hansberry’s second Broadway play, was 'The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window' (1964). To Be Young, Gifted, and Black', based on her writings, was produced off-Broadway after her death in New York City on Jan. 12, 1965.

Setting This play takes place on the South Side of the city of Chicago. Occurs between 1945-1959 Most of the play occurs in the apartment of the Younger family.

THEMES Prejudice Social Justice Personal Relationships Fate Consequences of Actions Personal Achievement Family

CAST OF CHARACTERS

LENA YOUNGER (Mama) (“Mama”) -  Walter and Beneatha’s mother. The matriarch of the family, Mama is religious, moral, and maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to fulfill her dream for her family to move up in the world.

Walter Lee Younger The protagonist of the play. Walter is a dreamer. He wants to be rich and devises plans to acquire wealth with his friends, particularly Willy Harris. When the play opens, he wants to invest his father’s insurance money in a new liquor store venture. He spends the rest of the play endlessly preoccupied with discovering a quick solution to his family’s various problems.

BENEATHA YOUNGER (Bennie) (“Bennie”) -  Mama’s daughter and Walter’s sister. Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends college and is better educated than the rest of the Younger family. Some of her personal beliefs and views have distanced her from conservative Mama. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well-educated black woman.

RUTH YOUNGER Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother. Ruth takes care of the Younger's’ small apartment. Her marriage to Walter has problems, but she hopes to rekindle their love. She is about thirty, but her weariness makes her seem older. Constantly fighting poverty and domestic troubles, she continues to be an emotionally strong woman.

TRAVIS YOUNGER Walter and Ruth’s sheltered young son. Travis earns some money by carrying grocery bags and likes to play outside with other neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and sleeps on the living-room sofa.