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Baraka, Amiri. "A Raisin in the Sun's Enduring Passion." Drama Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 2, Gale, 1992. Drama Criticism Online, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=sain32367&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CXDWJGS416519005&it=r. Accessed 2 May 2017. Originally published in A Raisin in the Sun; and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, by Lorraine Hansberry, edited by Robert Nemiroff, New American Library, 1987, pp. 9-20.

Robin, Bernstein,. "Inventing a Fishbowl: White Supremacy and the Critical Reception of Lorraine Hansberry's a Raisin in the Sun." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 192, Gale, 2008. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=sain32367&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CJBWMZU391562702&it=r. Accessed 2 May 2017. Originally published in Modern Drama, vol. 42, no. 1, Spring 1999, pp. 16-27.

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"The play repudiates the kind of materialism that values money and acquisition over human dignity and life. The spirit of humankind, Hansberry insists, must affirm freedom, justice, integrity, caring--at the expense of comfort or even life itself." -Amiri Baraka

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"I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free" by Nina Simone 

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"I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free" by Nina Simone 

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Nina Simone-I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free + Lyrics

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Nina Simone-I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me I wish I could say All the things that I should say Say 'em loud say 'em

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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?

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"Despite an incredible number of imperfections, Raisin is a good play. Its basic strength lies in the character and the problem of Walter Lee, which transcends his being a Negro. If the play were only the Negro-white conflict that crops up when the family’s proposed move is about to take place, it would be an editorial, momentarily effective, and nothing more. Walter Lee’s difficulty, however, is that he has accepted the American myth of success at its face value, that he is trapped, as Willy Loman was trapped, by a false dream." -Gerald Weales

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Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Speech

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Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Speech

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#Chicago

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Supreme Court Rules Against School Segregation 

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Supreme Court Rules Against School Segregation 

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#segregation

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum." 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.

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Trailblazer Ruby Bridges was only six when she advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. Learn more about her on womenshistory.org.

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Lorraine Hansberry Makes Broadway as First Black Female 

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Lorraine Hansberry Makes Broadway as First Black Female 

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Broadway Scene | Provided by All Tickets Inc.

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In 1959, just on the eve of the Civil Rights Movement in American, Lorraine Hansberry saw the history-making premiere of her drama A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway. A Raisin in the Sun, which was based on Hansberry and her family's own experiences, offered audiences a stellar cast that included Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. It was a play that no one wanted to produce. At least at first that was the case. Yet, with its second major Broadway revival in ten years, A Raisin in the Sun is considered to be an American classic. Its poignant honesty, three-dimensional characters, and solid structure help make it a powerful drama even long past the era in which it is set.

Late 1950s Chicago

Producers were afraid to back a play in which most of the cast was black and during which we watched a minority family struggle to attain their dreams while living in a racist society. A Raisin in the Sun offered a very dim view of whites as racist in sometimes subtle and deviously kind ways. And to top is off it was not set in the South, where one might expect racism to be commonplace, but on the South Side of Chicago in the late 1950s. Would a largely middle- to- upper class white audience really want to see such a show on Broadway?

It took producer Phillip Rose over a year to raise the money to produce A Raisin in the Sun. He enlisted producer David J. Cogan and the show went into production. The play premiered on Broadway on March 11, 1959 to the surprise of Rose and Hansberry, it garnered reviews. Then night before opening the audience gave A Raisin in the Sun a cool reception and producer and playwright expected the same from reviewers.

Tony Nominations and More

The play earned four Tony nominations, including Best Play for Hansberry and producers Rose and Cogan, Best Actor for Sidney Poitier (Walter Younger), Best Actress for Claudia McNeil (Lena Younger, Mama), and Best Direction for Lloyd Richards. Hansberry was the first black playwright to have a play on Broadway and Richards was the first black director on Broadway. The drama received the New York Drama Critic's Award for Best Play. She was the youngest playwright and at that time only the fifth woman to receive the award. A Raisin in the Sun ran for almost two years before going on a successful national tour.

The film was produced in 1961 with the original cast and In 1973, the musical adaptation of the play won the Tony for Best Musical. It received nine nominations and won two Tonys. The play was successfully revived on Broadway in 2004 with Sean Combs and Audra McDonald and that production was adapted into a popular film for television in 2008.

Hansberry's Untimely Death

In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry became one of the most promising playwrights in America. She was 29 years old. In five short years, she would die of pancreatic cancer. The end came on January 11, 1964. Hansberry created various other writings, including books and short stories. Her only other play to be produced on Broadway, which was entitled The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, received a tempered reception. It ran for 101 performances, closing the night before she died.

Her Legacy

In 1983, theatre reviewer Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times that Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun "changed American Theatre forever." She not only made people think and feel but she also made them realize through the Younger family that black characters could indeed be written in a manner that made them as real as someone like Willie Loman or Tom Wingfield. Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun signaled that the times they were indeed changing in America. As director Richards would note, it was the first drama to also draw blacks to the Broadway theatre. More than 50 years after its premiere, A Raisin in the Sun is considered to be an American classic.

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Raisin in the Sun: Broadway Premiere,Hansberry Classic Drama | Broadway Scene

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In 1959, just on the eve of the Civil Rights Movement in American, Lorraine Hansberry saw the history-making premiere of her drama A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway. A Raisin in the Sun, which was based on Hansberry and her family's own experiences, offered audiences a stellar cast that included Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee.

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http://lhlt.org/