A Raisin In The Sun

Sidney Poitier, Lloyd Richard and Ruby Dee reflect on the unprecedented casting of black actors in the Broadway debut of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Hansberry and her family were involved in the racial justice movements of the era. Her parents were prominent members of the African American community and her father worked for the NAACP.

Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright and civil rights activist who gave new voice to countless marginalized artists who were women, Black and queer.

Hansberry v. Lee: The Supreme Court Case that Influenced the Play “A Raisin in the Sun”

In March of 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, opened on Broadway. The play centers on the story of a Black family who decides to purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood in Chicago. Decades before Hansberry published her play, her family had a similar experience when they attempted to purchase a home in a white neighborhood where homeowners had agreed to a racially restrictive covenant.

Neighbors attempted to enforce the discriminatory agreement, resulting in the Supreme Court case, Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940).In 1937, Lorraine Hansberry’s father, Carl Hansberry, purchased a home in Woodlawn, a white neighborhood in Chicago.

Three generations of the Younger family share a cramped apartment on the segregated South Side of 1950s Chicago. The late Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy could mean a fresh start, but disputes surrounding how to spend the money reveal deep generational divides.

Company Artists Melanye Finister (Lettie, Skeleton Crew) and Eric B. Robinson Jr. (Bonez, Mud Row) lead a stellar ensemble in this award-winning classic. Simultaneously intimate and mythic in scope, Lorraine Hansberry’s pivotal drama “changed American theatre forever” (The New York Times).

A raisin in the sun