Everyman Theatre Blog

Raisin in the Sun

Finding the playwright between the lines
by Naomi Greenberg-Slovin

When Lorraine Hansberry wrote “Raisin in the Sun”, it was more than a beautiful drama. It was- and still is- a heart -wrenching historical testimonial to the on-going struggle of a people laying claim to their universal right to dignity and equality.

I was led by the passion of the playwright, to explore more deeply into her early years.

How was she raised and what experiences did she have that would foster such a depth of compassion and understanding? And did any of her own experiences parallel situations written into her play? The answer is ‘yes’.

One of the most crucial events in her  own life was very similar to the defining incident in the play where the family is determined to move into a white neighborhood. Lorraine had experienced that when she was eight years old

She was born and raised in a vast ghetto on the South Side of Chicago that black families from every income group called home.

 The Hansberry family was among the wealthier ones. Lorraine’s parents were educated intellectuals who spent their life and fortune fighting segregation along with other independent black activists. Her father was a brilliant, charismatic man who, she said “…..carried his head in such a way that I was quite certain that there was nothing he was afraid of.” And that courage was soon to be put to the test.

 Carl Hansberry worked with NAACP attorneys to get rid of what were called ‘restrictive covenants’ that gave neighborhoods the right to exclude those they were prejudiced against.

As Lorraine recalled it:  “That fight also required that our family occupy the disputed property in a hellishly hostile  “white neighborhood in which, literally, howling mobs surrounded our house. One of their missiles almost took [my life]. My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school…”

It didn’t take too long before the  Neighborhood  Improvement Association filed an  injunction ordering the family to vacate their home- which was, as expected, upheld by the Circuit Court and the Illinois Supreme Court. But that didn’t stop Hansberry. He challenged the ruling and went to the highest authority in the land. There the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Hansberry vs Lee (1940). In a unanimous vote the court rejected the restrictive covenant. But unfortunately, the ruling applied specifically and exclusively to the Hansberry family without ruling on the constitutionality of the restrictive covenants in general. It was a more bitter than sweet victory.

A second parallel in the play that gives voice to the playwright’s fervent advocacy for womens’ rights, was a prophetic one. Nothing was more important to Hansberry than changing the concept of black women among blacks as well as whites. And the part of the daughter, Beneatha, who aspires to be a doctor, is considered to be the character that Hansberry most identified with. The focus of most of the people around her was understandably centered on the practical issues of breaking down segregation in housing, work and access to public places. But for Lorraine it extended to breaking through the barriers to the mind. Why shouldn’t a black woman be a doctor, a lawyer or any other calling she desired, including those that involved higher educational pursuits? 

Finally, a third parallel reflects Lorraine’s fervent search for her own identity. And it was by creating the character of Joseph Asagai, the African student from Nigeria, that she introduced the ongoing question.

In recalling his first meeting with Beneatha, Asagai says: Do you remember the first time we met at school-? You came up to me and said, and I thought you were the most serious little thing I had ever seen- You said, Mr. Asagai- I want very much to talk to you. About  Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity!” Asagai could be amused by Beneatha’s  intensity because he had not descended from generations of a people living in a land that did not acknowledge them as part of it. Asagai did not question his own identity. He was Nigerian.  

Many things had changed by the time Lorraine Hansberry wrote “Raisin in the Sun” and she knew that although she as a black woman had come a long way toward achieving her dream of equality, she wasn’t there yet.

While she was in college she expressed her feelings through a story she wrote (in third person) about a young student telling her thoughts about Africa and her origins: “She had spent hours of her younger years pouring over maps of the African continent, postulating and fantasizing. Ibo,  Mandigo, Hausa, Yoruba, Ashanti. Who, who were they! In her emotions she was sprung from the Southern Zulu and the Central Pygmy, the Eastern Watusi and the treacherous slave-trading Ashanti themselves. She was Kikuyu and Masai, ancient cousins of hers had made the exquisite forged sculpture at Benin, while surely even more ancient relatives sat upon the throne at Abu Simbel watching over the Nile

One thing was certain: she was at one, texture, blood, follicles of hair, nerve ends, all with the sound of a mighty Congo drum. She had never heard African music that had not set her mad with the romance of her people, never. At the first rich basso boom, her heart rose in her bosom, her teeth set, her eyes widened, and Africa claimed her….”

“Raisin in the Sun” is certainly not autobiographical; it’s message is more universal than personal. But Lorraine Hansberry once made it very clear that she felt it is a story that could only be told by a black woman.