Analysis Of Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

The play Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is identified as a modernist text for it challenges the life of African-American families living in an industrial environment. Walter and Beneatha’s mother,

Sixty-two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled the “separate but equal” doctrine unconstitutional. The decision from the Plessy v. Ferguson case was lawfully denounced by the Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown case, which was initiated by the members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), served as a stimulus for challenging segregation in all areas of society, especially in public educational institutions. Among the support for the desegregation in school systems, there was a young yet compelling voice who was heard by numerous ears in the rural city in Farmville, Alabama. The virtuous and determined Barbara Johns, who was only a high school student then led her tiny, hovel-like school’s student body and the Farmville community to file a lawsuit in the hope of terminating the inequality in regards to the educational system.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun,” was a radically new representation of black life, resolutely authentic, fiercely unsentimental, and unflinching in its vision of what happens to people whose dreams are constantly deferred.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.

African Americans were never treated the same as other Americans. One day a black man who looked white named Homer Plessy got sick of sitting in a Jim Crow car so he decided to purchase a first class ticket in the white’s only section on the train. Plessy told the conductor that he was 1/8 black and he refused to move from the car. Removed from the train Plessy was in jail overnight and was released on a 500 dollar bond. Homer Plessy protested that his 13th and his 14th amendments rights were violated. This case became known as Plessy v. Ferguson. This case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun opened in a New York theater March 11, 1951. This play, although based on Hansberry’s own life and personal experiences was also inspired by Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem”. Hansberry used this play to tell the story of a 1950’s African American family trying to better themselves. She also used this play to shine a light on the issue of racism that were prominent during this time frame. This highly successful play “ran for 530 performances and was nominated for the 1960 Tony Award for best play”, and has had several adaptations made in its honor(Aurora). Despite the fact that these adaptations were made to equal the original play there are many differences between them and their predecessor.

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1892 was the case that was overturned by the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of 1984. This case was trying to challenge the Louisiana 's Separate Car Act, a law that made railroads in Louisiana provide “equal but separate accommodations” for patrons of different races. A multiracial man name named Homer Plessy

    Lorraine Hansberry faced many obstacles in her life which has made her  write this book A “Raisin in the Sun.” As said in Blooms Literature “She was the youngest of four children whose parents were well-educated, middle-class activists centrally engaged in the fight against racial discrimination. Early figures in the Civil Rights movement.” In the book “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first play written by an African American she made through experiences of  black people who live on Chicago’s South Side, Hansberry used members of her family as inspiration for her characters. Lorraine Hansberry life had comparisons in this book dealing with poverty

This case started with Linda and Olivier Brown. , Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to attend the nearest school to her neighborhood. The Board of Education made it difficult for him to do this. The Board of Education would not allow her to attend this school because of her race. Linda father did not agree. Being separate was not equal. Linda’s father knew that the white schools were not equal to the white schools; they had more updated equipment, which were in better condition, than colored schools. Separation by color is not equal treatment. Linda Brown’s father wanted the best for her, so he wanted the best-educated school for her. After the principal refused, Oliver went to of the NAACP. National On 1951, more African American parents who children were denied access into white schools, joined to help Mr. Brown and the NAACP start a conclusion in the segregation of schools. Out of all the families now involved in the

Throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century, American statutes and judicial precedents operated to preserve advantages of the white citizens of the country. In 1954 the Supreme Court, made a profound decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which brought about a fundamental change in the legal and racial organization of American society. Mr. Oliver L. Brown’s attorneys convinced the justices to overturn the precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson, in order to permit Mr. Brown’s daughter Linda to attend a white elementary school that was seven blocks from her home instead of going ten blocks to get on a bus to go to a segregated elementary school. This unanimous decision swept aside the legal principle of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

For many years, segregation was a problem for African- Americans, but eventually, enough was enough. Linda Brown, daughter of Oliver Brown, realized she had dealt with unreasonable forbiddance and that she should be able to attend school with people of all color. Brown v. Board of Education made people come to a conclusion that nobody should be segregated. With Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, and many other things that separated blacks from whites, they were unable to do the same way as people of any other color; Linda Brown’s case was taken to court and the law was passed that segregation would no longer be lawful, but it took a long period of time before the law was

Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun' showed the different ideas that African American families had during the Civil Rights era. Hansberry used each member of the Younger family was to portray the

A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry and is a play about an African American family who are struggling in the 1950’s to keep the family together. Although the play is portrayed in the 50’s many issues like the economy, racism, and family dynamics the characters had to face; these issues are still issues in the 21st century.

A Raisin in the Sun is written by a famous African- American play write, Lorraine Hansberry, in 1959. It was a first play written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the white section of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 1938. The struggle of Lorraine Hansberry’s family inspired her to write the

In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, a story about an African American family living in Chicago. The book illustrates what the daily problems of an average black family had to deal with while living in America in the 1950s and their struggle of overcoming obstacles to reach their “dream”. Hansberry use this novel to address topics such as racism, racial inequality, and racial discrimination. In 1954, many people during that time supported segregation. People perceived whites and blacks completely different and people wanted them to be separate. Everywhere in the south had “whites only” or “colored”, and many wanted to keep it that way. History will always repeat itself and people are not