American Literature

Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)

Women

African Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore Lorraine Hansberry&#39;s play, A Raisin in the Sun.

A photograph of the back steps of apartments on Chicago’s South Side, 1941.

An excerpt from a Chicago commission report on building new neighborhoods, 1943. 

A photo of an African American woman working as a domestic, 1939. 

A photo of an African American chauffeur, 1939.

A photo of African American women in 1950s attire.

A photo of a bride and groom in traditional Nigerian dress.

A photo of a female customer at the Natural Kuumba Hair Salon.

A photo of crowd gathered after a white supremacist protest of the arrival of the first black family to an Atlanta neighborhood, 1946.

A television news clip about integration challenges in a Fort Worth, Texas, neighborhood, 1956.

News script read when this footage showed on the Texas News, Sunday, September 2, 1956 at 10 PM.
 
“NEW RACIAL STRIFE IN FORT WORTH”
 
[CU OF POSTER]
 
Racial strike breaks out anew in a fringe White-Negro residential area in Forth Worth.
The trouble starts over the occupancy of a house at 209 North Judkins street in Riverside by the Negro family of Lloyd Austin. The house is the first in the block occupied by Negroes although Negroes reside just three doors away in the 100 block. A white crowd gathers at Riverside Elementary School to hear E. G. Brown call for action against the Austin family. Brown says he doesn’t want violence but suggests a parade of protest in front of the house. About 200 persons attend the meeting, some not residents of the area.
 
[PEOPLE PAINT SIGNS]
 
Jack Lamont of the Diamond Hill area supervises the preparation of signs saying he’s for hanging Negroes. Citizens Council literature is distributed.
 
[MAN SPEAKING]
 
Former City Councilman George Seaman suggests economic pressure to get Austin and his wife fired from their jobs.
 
[MONEY]
 
At the same tine, more than 52 dollars is collected from the crowd to help finance whatever action, if any, is taken.
 
[PEOPLE LEAVE]
 
Then the crowd, carrying its signs, leaves for the Austin residence on Judkins street. Austin, 32, moved with his wife and child into the house yesterday. The crowd, arriving for the most part by automobile, floods the street and sidewalk around the Austin house.
 
[NEGRO AT CAR]
 
A friend of the Austins’ comes out of the house, takes two rifles from a car and slowly returns to the home. He crowd, noticeably quiet, retreats up the street.
 
[MEN WITH SIGNS]
 
But Lamont, with this signs, maintains his stand in front of the house although he says he’s not going up on the lawn. Police arrive and ask Lamont and his friends to move.
 
[NEGRO WALKING]
 
A man identified as Lawrence Peters goes into the Austin home. Peters’ move into the 100-block of Judkins two years ago touched off similar trouble, including the bombing of a car.
Negroes now occupy all but one house in the block.
 
[TWO NEGROES WALKING]
 
Two other Negroes go into the Austin home, escorted by a police officer. The crowd stays its distance and jeers.
 
[WHITE MAN GOES TO HOUSE]
 
Then Brown foes into the house to talk with Austin. He is accompanied by Police Sergeant Ray Briggs.
 
[HE COMES OUT (AFTER CROWD SHOT)]
 
Moments later he returns to say Austin is determined to stay in the house. He says his offer to buy the house from Austin was turned down. He says he told Austin he didn’t want violence but that he couldn’t guarantee what others might do.
 
[LONG, NEGRO WALKS UP]
 
A Negro minister, well dressed, arrives at the Austin home. He is taunted and called names by a group of newly-arrived high school students from Polytechnic. As the crowd breaks up, two of the Negroes leave the Austin home and stand aside as the jeering crowd moves by. There is no violence.
 
[NIGHT SCENE, GANG]
 
Tonight, more trouble. Less than an hour ago, a gang of about 40 boys gathers in front of the Austin home throwing stones. Fifty other residents of the area stand aside and watch. Several windows in the Austin home are broken by stones and soft drink bottles. No police are in sight. Suddenly a shot is fired and the crowd centers around a car parked directly in front of the home. Bullet holes are found in the hood and the radiator of the car.
 
[BOYS DISPLAY DUMMY]
 
The boys display an effigy they say they tied in a nearby tree. They say a Negro man came out and cut it down. Police finally arrive, the first of 25 officers who block the street with squad cars and begin sending the boys home. Chief Hightower, on the scene, says he thinks the situation is under control—at least for the night.

A 1967 political cartoon about war and residential integration. 

A photo of Lorraine Hansberry at the time *A Raisin in the Sun* opened in New Haven, Connecticut, prior to its run on Broadway, 1959. 

A photo of actors playing Walter Younger, Ruth Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Karl Lindner in the first stage production of the play, 1959.

A photo of actors playing Walter Younger, Ruth Younger, and George Murchison in the first stage production of the play, 1959.

A photo of actors playing Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha Younger in the first stage production of the play, 1959.

Questions

1. Using the [photograph of the back steps of apartments on Chicago’s South Side](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/18) and the [excerpt from a Chicago commission report](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/19), explain the appeal of suburban life for Chicago residents in the 1940s and ’50s. How does your answer relate to the experiences and ambitions of the Younger family in the play? 

2. Using the photographs of the [domestic](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/20) and the [chauffeur](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/21) as evidence, explain what kinds of professions were available to African Americans in the postwar period. Where do the occupations depicted appear in this play? What impact do they have on the characters? 

3. Using the [photo of African American women in 1950s attire](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/22), the [photo of a bride and groom in traditional Nigerian dress](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/23), and the [photo of a female customer at the Natural Kuumba Hair Salon](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/24), describe the transformation that Beneatha undergoes during *A Raisin in the Sun*. What does this transformation signify about her changing identity?

4. Despite the setback during the Karl Lindner visit, the Youngers proceed with their plans to move. Using the [photo of crowd gathering after the arrest of a white supremacist group](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/25) and the [television news clip](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/sources/26) as evidence, explain some of the challenges that might await them in Clybourne Park.


Activity

Break students into groups and assign each one an image from the original production of the play. Ask each group to connect their image to a specific scene from the play by answering the following questions:

Which characters appear in the picture?  
What is the mood depicted in the picture?   
How are the actors’ bodies positioned in each scene?   
Why would the director choose such positionings?  
What sorts of props and sets do you see? How do they fit in?  
What does the image help emphasize about the scene?   

Teaching Guide: Exploring *A Raisin in the Sun*

Resources

1. [Lorraine Hansberry: Her Chicago law story](http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2013/03/06/lorraine-hansberry-her-chicago-law-story/), The University of Chicago Library.

2. [Racial Restrictive Covenants](http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants.htm), Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project. 

3. [A Raisin in the Sun Revisited: Lorraine Hansberry](http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/cfad8eef-0f87-417e-b64d-fe639f59e66c/a-raisin-in-the-sun-revisited-lorraine-hansberry/), PBS LearningMedia.

4. [Text to Text: A Raisin in the Sun and “Discrimination in Housing Against Nonwhites Persists Quietly,"](http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/text-to-text-a-raisin-in-the-sun-and-discrimination-in-housing-against-nonwhites-persists-quietly/?_r=0) *The New York Times*.


Overview

Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play, *A Raisin in the Sun* (1959), tells the story of the Youngers, three generations of an African American family living together in a small apartment on Chicago’s South Side. Set in the postwar era, the play follows the family’s struggles with poverty and their decision to move to a single-family home in the all-white neighborhood of Clybourne Park. It explores themes of discrimination, assimilation, black pride, gender, and sacrifice; its title is a reference to the Langston Hughes poem, “Harlem” (“A Dream Deferred”). Hansberry based this work on her family’s own experiences with housing discrimination and racially motivated restrictive covenants in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood, litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court case, *Hansberry v. Lee* (1940). When *A Raisin in the Sun* debuted on Broadway in 1959, it brought the daily struggles of African American life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audience, while also attracting an unprecedented African American audience. In its own day, the play won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for best play of 1959 and was nominated for a number of Tony Awards. It has since become one of the most frequently taught, most enduring works of American drama. This primary source set includes photographs, documents, and news footage that provide context for the challenges characters face in the play.


English

*A Raisin in the Sun* by Lorraine Hansberry

raisin-in-the-sun-lorraine-hansberry_05_f061af4e8b0ea15e4a70d29006563fea.jpg

Courtesy of University of Southern California Libraries. 

Adams, Harry H., “Group of African American women gathered around a woman reading from a pamphlet, Los Angeles, ca. 1951-1960,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/f061af4e8b0ea15e4a70d29006563fea.

A photo of African American women in 1950s attire.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 5 of 14 in the Primary Source Set A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry