Assimilation in Lorraine Hansberry s quot A Raisin in the Sun quot.pdf

Wissenschaftliche Prüfungsarbeit
gemäß §12 der Landesverordnung über die Erste Staatsprüfung für das Lehramt an
Gymnasien vom 07. Mai 1982, in der derzeit gültigen Fassung
Kandidat/In: Maria Vareli
der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz
Fach: Englisch
Thema: “Dream Deferred?” – Assimilation in Lorraine
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
Erstgutachter/In: Prof. Dr. Winfried Herget
Zweitgutachter/In: Prof. Dr. Günther Lampert
Abgabedatum: 6. März 2109

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Langston Hughes, 1921-1930

i
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.................................................................................................................. 1
2. Segregation, Integration and Assimilation in the United States ................................ 6
2.1. The Difference between Integration and Assimilation .................................... 7
2.2. “Uplifting the Race” – Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois............ 10
2.2.1. “Cast Down your Bucket Where you Are” – Booker T. Washington............. 11
2.2.2. “Double Consciousness” – W.E.B. Du Bois’ Ideology .................................. 12
2.3. “In the Land of the Free?” Segregation and Integration in the United States
in the Twentieth Century.............................................................................................. 15
2.4. “Looking for Lorraine Hansberry” – the Daily Life of African Americans in
Segregated America ...................................................................................................... 19
2.4.1. Segregation in Housing................................................................................... 19
2.4.2. Employment, Opportunities and Poverty........................................................ 23
2.4.3. Segregation in Education ................................................................................ 24
2.5. “Walking on Revolutionary Road” – The Civil Rights Movement .............. 25
3. “Dreams Deferred?” – Lorraine Hansberry’s Play A Raisin in the Sun and the
Debate over Assimilation ................................................................................................... 28
3.1. “People Who Happen to Be Negroes?” – The Younger Family.................... 31
3.1.1. Ruth Younger – “the Angel of the House” ..................................................... 33
3.1.2. Walter Lee Younger – “Explosive Dreams”................................................... 37
3.1.3. Beneatha Younger – the “Angry” and Rising Up Woman.............................. 50
3.1.4. Beneatha’s Suitors: George Murchison and Joseph Asagai............................ 55
3.2. “Is it Necessary to Integrate the Negro into a Burning House?” –
Assimilation in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun....................................... 62
3.2.1. Assimilation into American Life – the Black Experience and A Raisin in the
Sun ………………………………………………………………………………..64
3.2.2. “Will Somebody Just Tell me What Assimila – Whoever Means!” – Ruth ... 67
3.2.3. “Gamble Big, Hell, Lose Big” – Walter.......................................................... 69
3.2.4. “Something Always Told me I Wasn’t No Rich White Woman” – Lena
Younger....................................................................................................................... 75
3.2.5. “Enough of this Assimilationist Junk” – Beneatha......................................... 78
3.2.6. “The Welcoming Committee of Clybourne Park” – Mr. Linder..................... 83
3.2.7. “The Classic Victim of Cultural Rape?” – George Murchison....................... 85
3.2.8. Vexed Debate – Assimilation as the Solution to the African American
Experience?................................................................................................................. 86
3.3. “I too, Sing America. I Am the Darker Brother” – The Importance of
Dignity ............................................................................................................................ 91
3.3.1. “There is Always Something Left to Love” – Walter and Beneatha As
“Angry” Siblings......................................................................................................... 92

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3.3.2. Mother and Son – Walter and Lena Younger ................................................. 94
3.3.3. Beneatha and Mama Lena Younger – “Strong Black Women”...................... 96
4. The Impact of A Raisin in the Sun and Its Aftermath.............................................. 99
4.1. “It Was a Play about People Who Happened to be Negroes” – Criticism of
the Play......................................................................................................................... 100
4.2. Amiri Baraka and His “Reevaluation” of A Raisin in the Sun ................... 104
4.3. Martin Luther King and the “Politics of Love” ........................................... 106
5. Conclusion................................................................................................................ 109
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 116
Eidesstattliche Erklärung ................................................................................................ 122

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1. Introduction
The 1950s and 1960s marked a fateful and vibrant decade for American society that
generated brilliant African American writers. As early as 1950, Hugh Gloster claimed in his
essay “Race and the Negro Writer” that the African American writer should not be concerned
about race, but that he should “treat race from the universal point of view” to “transcend the
color line” (Gloster, p. 371).
Six years later, in 1956, Arthur P. Davis mentioned in his essay “Integration and Race
Literature” that America was indeed facing times of change, not only in literature but also
in society and politics, that left old traditions of slave protest literature behind. African
Americans had grown more and more impatient about current societal and political
structures which consequently produced brilliant social activists and artists. Among those
notable African American who made “new sounds” of change was Lorraine Hansberry.
Being “young, gifted and black”, she became an influential African American artist,
playwright, activist and author. Born in 1930 in the still segregated Chicago, Illinois, a great
deal of the human questions of love and grace of charity was left open to her. The suffering
she witnessed there, the poverty, violence, the overcrowding in African American ghettos,
the lack of chances and discrimination paired with a deep commitment to human rights,
molded her into the person everyone appreciated and still does. Early in her childhood, she
wanted to “put down the stuff of [her] life” (Nemiroff, p. 45); however, she was insecure
about how much of the truth the world could endure: “how much of the truth to tell? How
much, how much, how much!” (45). Lorraine Hansberry was constantly searching to show
the truth, which allowed her various ways to create artistic work as an author.
“It is no disgrace to be a Negro, but it is very inconvenient” (Gomez 1990, p. 309) – this
quote sums up the status of African Americans at that time, just when Lorraine Hansberry
appeared on the stage of political activism. Wanting to change the system that “allows little
Black girls to be blown to bits in Birmingham; that allows the flesh of Jews to be turned into
lampshades; that allows generations of an indigenous people to be decimated in a place that
is called the land of the free” (315), she engaged herself with art, to defend the values she
believed were a basis for humanity’s restoration of peace. Robert Nemiroff, Lorraine’s close
friend and ex-husband, recollected the memory of the particular day when she completed
her first play and artistic work:
[…] I had turned the last page out of the typewriter and pressed all the sheets neatly together in a pile
and gone and stretched out face down on the living room floor. I had finished a play; a play I had no

2
reason to think or not to think would ever be done; a play that I was sure no one would quite understand
[…] (Nemiroff, p. 120)
Due to America’s ignorance of the truth, she was scared that her play would not reach a
broad audience. This ignorance was one of a kind, and as James Baldwin had put it, it was
“not only colossal, but scared” (Baldwin in Raisin, p. 8). It is “an endless capacity” that
functioned as a mean “to deceive [America] where race is concerned” (Nemiroff in Raisin,
p. 8).
Eventually, the play has been understood to have made her the first black playwright
and youngest African American woman to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award
for A Raisin in the Sun. In fact, the play offered unique approaches of where to place African
Americans in society. It tells the story of an African American family who lives in a small
and old apartment in the Southside of Chicago in the 1950s, “[s]ometime between World
War II and the present” (Hansberry, p. 24), when it was still a segregated city. The drama is
a three-act play which is about a family, the Youngers, whose language mirrors their
background in South Side Chicago. At the time when the play is set, the opportunities for
African Americans were still limited by infringement of rights and sustained racism.
Receiving a life insurance check after the early death of the head of the family, Walter Lee
Senior, each member of the family dreamt of their own possibilities to use the money in
order to afford a better life. The play, therefore, is about dreams, deferred dreams and also
the danger of what happens to them when they are delayed for too long. It is also about
domestic life – it is about a family who shows everyone that they do have dignity and that
they are not as different as white people think they might be. In Hansberry’s words the play
“tells the truth about people, Negroes and life and I think it will help a lot of people to
understand how we are just as complicated as they are (…) but above all, that we have among
our miserable and downtrodden ranks – people who are the very essence of human dignity”
(Nemiroff, p. 109). The reason why her play became so important is that it depicts people
that no one would look after in the streets when passing by. Lorraine Hansberry put them on
stage to tell particularly their individual story. At the time A Raisin in the Sun appeared on
Broadway in 1959, it foresaw issues that some years later were inescapable and which shook
America: “[the] value system of the black family; concepts of African American beauty and
identity; class and generational conflicts…the outspoken […] feminism of the daughter”
(Nemiroff in Raisin, p. 6), and the discourse about colonialism in Africa through the
Nigerian character Asagai. Consequently, the play came at a time when Americans, white
and black, were ready for the change. They just needed ways to understand what the change

3
would be like and how it was going to develop. Lorraine could foresee many events,
including those that America was going to be concerned about, in depicting those conflicts
as they were truly lived by African Americans at that time.
Long before Lorraine Hansberry’s play appeared on the stage of American
consciousness, the debate over the question of a possible and fruitful assimilation of African
Americans into American life arose, starting right after the Emancipation Proclamation in
1863. At that time, the general opinion among white Americans was to keep African
Americans as far from the mainstream and their lives as possible, leading to a century of
racial segregation. It was clear that in order to break down the rule of Jim Crow, much mutual
understanding and kindness had to be applied from both blacks and whites. In the course of
time, African Americans became more visible in American society due to constant and
growing resistance. Eventually, in 1956, Arthur Davis noted in his essay “Integration and
Race Literature” that “[i]ntegration is the most vital issue in America today. The word is in
every tongue, and it has acquired all kinds of meanings and connotations” (Davis, p. 141).
Indeed, it became a broadly discussed issue in America, which needed to be further defined
and analyzed because people, particularly African Americans, did not know whether
integration or assimilation would benefit or disadvantage them. As assimilation and
integration were often confused at that time, Lorraine Hansberry and her play were seen as
integrationist and thus as assimilationist, which again was negatively received by mostly
African Americans due to the gradual rise of black consciousness in the early 1960’s. In fact,
assimilation implied a fusion that involved an irreversible loss of one’s ethnic identity,
whereas integration could be seen as gradual desegregation at that time. In that case, there
was a dispute over whether assimilation was changing ethnic identity or whether it was just
about national principles. On the whole it can be said that the main objective was to
transform America into a metaphorical melting pot, in which every American, black or
white, would be indistinguishable from each other. At first glance, it seemed to be beneficial
for African Americans as it would wash away a historically connotated inferiority towards
white America. In theory, it was far more difficult than it was thought it would be. Even
today and in the course of the twenty-first century, the debate over assimilation and
integration into American life is, for many new and old immigrants, as vital and under
discussion as it has been in the mid-twentieth century and European immigrants and African
Americans are equally concerned. In the New York Times article “What does it take to
‘Assimilate’ in America?”, written by Laila Lalami, published on August 1, 2017, the
question arises as to whether assimilation into America is still reachable and wanted today
and if it is the case, how it has transformed. The debate over assimilation and identity

4
remained almost the same as before, as “complaints about assimilation are mostly about
identity — a nebulous mix of race, religion and language” (Lalami 2017). Assimilation was
and still is a tool for reaching the American Dream and according to Lalami “[o]ne of this
country’s most cherished myths is the idea that, no matter where you come from, if you work
hard, you can be successful. But these ideals have always been combined with a deep
suspicion of newcomers.” (2017). In order to build a full picture of the debate, African
Americans, even though they are one of the oldest groups in America, forced by the
institution of slavery to abandon their native country, have been, in the aforementioned
terms, treated as untrustworthy and inferior. Thus, the question over “a deferred dream” of
assimilation is likely to arise again today. Not surprisingly, the play remains as contemporary
as it never was. Indeed, on the day of her funeral in 1965, Lorraine Hansberry’s brilliance
and impact were even honored by the Reverend Martin Luther King, who stated that
Hansberry’s “creative literary ability and her profound grasp of deep social issues
confronting the world” (King in Nemiroff, p. 1) would remain an inspiration for generations
to come. Her thinking at that time was revolutionary. Almost sixty years later, King’s words
hold true – Lorraine Hansberry and her work have never lost their importance to people,
young and old, black and white. Nemiroff calls it a “sad commentary on America” (Nemiroff
in Raisin, p. 13) that the country is still concerned with “ugly manifestation of racism in its
myriad forms” (Nemiroff in Raisin, p. 13). Therefore, there is reason to examine the issue
of assimilation as it was presented in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun with the
theory of the nature of assimilation by Gordon Milton, which is part of his Assimilation in
American Life (1964), in order to be able to dive into a new debate over the change of
assimilation in contemporary America. The central question this thesis will be concerned
with is how assimilation and A Raisin in the Sun were pictured and dealt with, particularly
in the twentieth century. Did something eventually change when the civil rights movement
began?
This thesis work will utilize the play A Raisin in the Sun alongside other biographical
texts about Hansberry to define her vision of fundamental liberation for black people, taking
the assimilation and integration debate into consideration, and to display the naturalistic
theatre approach at that time, which marked a change in the treatment of African American
plays. After discussing the historical background of the situation of African Americans in
America, an in-depth analysis of the main characters of Lorraine Hansberry’s first play A
Raisin in the Sun, firstly performed on Broadway in 1959, will be conducted in order to dive
into the heart of the thesis, namely the discussion over assimilation and how it is presented
in the play. The research on assimilation is supported by Milton Gordon’s theory of the

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nature of assimilation. The aim is to figure out whether Hansberry supported assimilation in
her play. In addition, the role of class, generational and sibling conflicts are researched in
order to answer the research question on the reality of the deferred dream, known as
assimilation. Chapter 4 entails the relevance of the play for future generations, which
includes an overview over the criticism it received at that time, together with an analysis of
the importance of dignity and why it should be taken as important value for African
Americans. Although it is often read as a play advocating integration and assimilation, a
closer look reveals that black inclusion in all-white neighborhoods is not the thematic point
of a Raisin in the Sun, but that it is more complex. This work, therefore, reexamines, the
“climax” of the play, which in 1959 “became, pure and simple, a ‘happy ending’” (Nemiroff
in Raisin, p. 10).

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2. Segregation, Integration and Assimilation in the United States
The history of Africans in America is long, namely, from the time they were transported on
slave ships in the Middle Passage up to their conditions in America today; to name all aspects
and important events would fill up an entire book. Nevertheless, these aspects and events
were visualized by Imamu Amiri Baraka and his play Slave Ship, published in 1964, showing
a realistic and historical illustration of how one might have been to be brought from Africa
to America in the Middle Passage by these ships. In this play, the audience is confronted
with a dark and violent interpretation of the historical transportation of the slaves. From that
point in time, slavery and also their story in America emerged, in the supposed land of
opportunity. After the abolition of slavery with the 13th
Amendment in 1865, African
Americans could by some means live in a state of freedom, but they had to find their place
in society. In the south of America, many white people could not leave old viewpoints behind
and African Americans have since faced racial hostility. Therefore, they escaped to the north
where there were white people who accepted and tolerated them. African Americans could
live “freely” in many areas, they had access to many facilities and institutions, but they were
still separated from the white people. This separation was later named segregation. Racial
segregation took place during that time. In the south, segregation was legal and enforced by
Jim Crow laws. Violence and discrimination ruled the everyday life of African Americans
and decreased only after a long line of demonstrations and resistance at the end of the 1950s.
In the north “the line that divides Negroes from whites has no legal sanction, and in areas of
secondary contact varies widely from city to city and even within a given community”
(Gordon, p. 164-165). According to John Hope Franklin, the situation for African Americans
was “better than in the South”, yet not free (Franklin, p. 241). However, it is reported that in
areas of social contact, whites and blacks remained apart. This particular segregation and the
treatment of African Americans as inferiors resulted in the formation of subcultures.
However, the separation of African Americans from the white population in America and
the formation of a necessary separate social world have been discussed by some important
sociologists including Gunnar Myrdal and Franklin Frazier, who will be named in the course
of chapter 2 (see Gordon, p. 163).
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Harlem neighborhood of the New York
borough of Manhattan became a mecca for ensuring the needs, security and gathering of
African Americans. “Segregation” as Glazer, a sociologist, puts it “helped make Harlem
alive” (Glazer, p. 27). It has long been recognized as a major cultural and business center for
all African Americans, “the old tiny “upper class”, the new professionals and white-collar
worker […] the artists and entertainers and writers” (27). The Harlem Renaissance, that

7
broadly focused on black art, made this place even more famous in the 1930s, but it was also
associated with crime and poverty.
The play A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, a gifted female African
American author, deals with ordinary African Americans and their pursuit of happiness in
American society. As mentioned, after the abolition of slavery, African Americans remained
“segregated but equal” according to the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896.
Afterwards several civil rights bills were passed and many more cases dealing with
discrimination reached the Supreme Court (see Domina, p. 22). African Americans had to
create a sub-society of their own. African Americans had indeed no access to wealth and
political power. The country was dominated by white people. African Americans felt
comfortable within their own space; however, “they keenly desire that discrimination in such
areas as employment, education, housing, and public accommodations be eliminated”
(Gordon, p. 113). As some scholars consider that they do not feel a strong connection to their
African heritage, it can be said that such a dual society is “created solely by dynamics of
prejudice and discrimination rather than being reinforced by ideological commitments of the
minority itself” (114). Resistance grew and became louder because it did not conform to the
original constitutional concept that every American citizen is actually equal.
Most people associate the struggle for civil rights with the 1950’s and 1960’s although
it was discussed in America for longer. In the following, the play A Raisin in the Sun will be
put into historical context. Furthermore, some aspects of the author’s life will be included,
in order to provide a broader understanding of the play and its aim.
2.1. The Difference between Integration and Assimilation
Black assimilation became an important subject in America in the mid-twentieth century.
First, in the 1950s the terms “integration” and “assimilation” were not used synonymously.
Integration had a less strong connotation in the 1950s, meaning desegregation in a limited
form. Assimilation, on the other hand, meant a total absorption into the culture and society
that should follow integration. Sociologists assumed that the act of desegregation would be
followed by “gradual movement of blacks into mainstream American culture, and that racial
characteristics would gradually lose their significance as determinants of social status and
identity” (Metzger, p. 629). This statement denotes the gradual and autonomous assimilation
of African Americans race until a status of a colorless society is reached. However, in reality
it posed a challenge.
When talking about the term assimilation, one has to bear in mind that it describes a
kind of ideology which should be further defined. In 1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

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made an early attempt to picture the process when different people meet and form a new
society by asking the question of how to define the new American man:
He is either European, or the descendant of a European, hence the strange mixture of blood, which you
will find in no other country. […] He is an American, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and
manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys,
and the new rank he holds. […] Here (Alma Mata) individuals of all nations are melted into a new race
of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world (Crèvecoeur in
Gordon, p. 55).
In the early days of America, the requirements for good and pure American society were set
as being an American and did not mean being European nor being white or black.
Crèvecoeur saw the necessity of melting all cultures and people in order to create a purer
society. However, as slavery had existed since the seventeenth century, neither the African
nor the Indian were welcomed to be part of the definition of the new American man as they
were seen as inferiors and were, to some extent, regarded to have the value of animals.
Whiteness has reigned in American society and culture ever since.
However, after the abolition of slavery that ended with the Emancipation Proclamation
by Lincoln in 1862 (Franklin, p.245), efforts had been made to integrate African Americans
into society. In the early 1890s, African Americans and immigrants tried to fit into society.
The term “melting pot” was used to describe this integration. For African Americans,
however, the process of integration or assimilation can be rather described under the term
“fish bowl”, in which they are trapped. They see the outside world but are not able to act
freely. Taking a closer look at the conditions of assimilation and integration, the question
arises under which conditions these people would live together in one country. The term
assimilation is defined by Brewton Berry as follows:
By assimilation we mean the process whereby groups of different cultures come together to have a
common culture. This means, of course, not merely such items of the culture as dress, knives and forks,
language, food, sports, and automobiles, which are relatively easy to appreciate and acquire, but also
those less tangible items such as values, memories, sentiments, ideas, and attitudes. Assimilation refers
thus to the fusion of cultural heritages, and must be distinguished from amalgamation, which denotes
the biological mixture of originally distinct racial strains. (Berry qtd.in Gordon, p. 65)
According to Berry, assimilation includes a full absorption of the new culture of the country,
in which one lives, leaving all familiar and memories behind and adapting to the new culture.
The aim is to erase all old traces or to newly form them in order to create a new cultural

9
identity. Acceptance is the key to a successful assimilation which is “the gradual process
whereby cultural differences (and rivalries) tend to disappear” (Cuber in Gordon, p. 66).
In theory, assimilation was a necessary tool to overcome racism as it was important for
African Americans to become invisible, or as critics may say, white washed. In practice, the
process of assimilation meant much more: “Successful assimilation, moreover, has been
viewed as synonymous with equality of opportunity and upward mobility for the members
of minority groups" (Metzger, p. 629). What does it mean? The term assimilation was, in
fact, not linked to a single and clearly defined theory, but it left room for various explanations
of the concept (see Hirschman, p. 130). It thus requires fundamental changes. To reach the
state of assimilation, blacks and whites had to share social lives, work, religious values and
to some extend a similar way of thinking. African Americans needed to have the same rights,
including civil rights, freedom of speech, access to all institutions without segregation, and
equal economic opportunities. Toleration and acceptance of the target culture even facilitates
the process that is long and gradual. That means that there should be close and direct contact
among African Americans, immigrants and the new society. The Americanization of African
Americans is required to be supported by the majority, namely white Americans, who serve
as natural and rapid catalysts for the process. Assimilation is a process that includes give and
take: Acceptance follows friendship and thus unconsciously Americanization.
Where is the line between integration and assimilation? Why is it important to mention
integration besides assimilation? Although American society has called for the need to
Americanize African Americans, it was a slow and troublesome experience for both ethnic
groups. Assimilation was from the beginning a problematic ideology as it would mean to
lose one’s own ethnic identity in order to become indistinguishable from the dominating
culture, whereas integration gave space for the accumulation of black pride.
In a way, assimilation appealed more to whites as it would also be taken to wash away
a certain degree of guilt - only seeing the perspective of the “hunter” and not the “hunted”,
does not represent a good approach to the race problem. However, for African Americans
who wanted to Americanize themselves, it was required to reshape “folk consciousness”
(Wright, p. 144) and to leave the past behind in order “to cross class and racial lines” (144).
The understanding of the history of the black man is not to be forgotten in this process
because “[w]hat we want, what we represent, what we endure is what America is” (146).
The assimilation approach should, therefore, not just highlight “white culture” as the only
true culture but give space to the formation and keeping of African American cultural traits.
The golden middle course can prevent a struggle over identity where the problem over “am
I too white?” or “am I too black?” would be left aside. In the course of the 1950s, however,

10
it was discussed whether assimilation could result in a developed picture of African
Americans that includes a peaceful togetherness with white society with the implicit
understanding that it would not further continue to exclude African Americans from
political, economic or social life in America. It was nevertheless shaped by racial tensions
and white antagonism that made the goal seems to be still unreachable. In order to gain a
better understanding of Americanization and integration, also a subject in the play A Raisin
in the Sun, one has to briefly go back to the beginnings of the new African American up to
the civil rights movement, to be done in the course of the chapter at hand. Moreover, in
section 3.2.1, the nature of assimilation by Milton Gordon will be presented, serving as a
basis for further analysis of the play and its characters.
2.2. “Uplifting the Race” – Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois
A famous unnamed speech by Frederick Douglass, given in 1852 on America’s
Independence Day, summarizes briefly what it means to be a slave in an independent
country. He says:” You profess to believe, ‘that, of one blood, God made all nations of men
to dwell on the face of all the earth,’ and hath commanded all men everywhere to love one
another; yet you notoriously hate all men whose skins are not colored like your own”
(Douglass, p. 68). In this statement, it is emphasized that racism also opposes God’s
commandment, namely to love one another. Thus, racism can be regarded as a sin. In 1865,
slavery was eventually partly abolished (Franklin, p. 234). One has, nevertheless, to consider
the early attempts of African Americans to regain their status as human beings in the post-
emancipation area. It is a cruel fact that the substance of Douglass speech has not lost its
validity and importance for African Americans in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Even today, the importance of the quote cannot be denied. In the mid-1870s, there
were several Jim Crow laws created, which ordered the separation of the races in every single
aspect of life: transportation, public facilities, education and social life. These are essentially
the political issues of African Americans. So, the metaphor “uplifting the race” is essential
when talking about the early years of African American history because it was necessary to
improve their status.
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois were two important icons when it comes to
the challenge of integrating or assimilating African Americans into society. Both had a very
unique way of addressing and solving the problem of the American Negro: educational
success and industrial independent power should provide the keys to uplift the race and to
guarantee a brighter future.

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2.2.1. “Cast Down your Bucket Where you are” – Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was one of the first to make an effort to change the situation of his
race, particularly in the Deep South. By some, he is considered too cautious in telling his
race to remain friendly to their white neighbors. He pleads to make the best out of their
situation rather than appeal for equal rights.
In the 1880s, Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute, providing
economical education for African Americans. It should show “what blacks were capable of
doing” (Norell 2009, p. 92). His institution, however, can be seen as a success because it
provided help in times when African Americans still tried to find their place in racist
America, after slavery had been abolished. It also offered education for those who wanted
to become instructors in order to teach their fellow African Americans how to become
independent farmers and thus be economically independent. Industrial training, he believed,
would lower white hostility to black education (97). He was innovatory in thinking that
economic education could uplift his race and that it could additionally promote racial
harmony. Not only did it “calm down” whites, but it also provided a “rising status, in order
to sustain themselves [African Americans] during their frequent hard times” (105).
In 1893, Booker T. Washington was aware of the fact that violence against African
Americans was at its peak: “[t]he lynching habit has gotten to the point” (113) where it was
unbearable. His fellow African Americans were still seen as uncivilized savages by many
southerners in rural areas (119). He tried to find a solution to calm down the hostile
environment between whites and African Americans. In 1895, he held his speech at the
Atlanta Constitution. He argued that to better the condition of the African American in
America, it was necessary to “[c]ast down your bucket where you are, cast it down in making
friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded”
(Washington in Domina, p. 74). He then further appealed to them that they should be active
in agriculture, mechanics, commerce and domestic service (cf. Washington in Domina, p.
74). Not only did this metaphor urge African Americans to firstly remain modest because
“[n]o race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling fields as in writing
a poem“ (74) but it should also be an appeal for the white race to rely on African Americans
and not to seek labor somewhere else and hence exclude the black man completely (see
Nerrol, p. 125). His speech sought to build trust between the races. With that he can be seen
as the first man to suggest a basis for integration and assimilation: “In all things that are
purely social we can be as separated as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential
to mutual progress” (Washington in Nerrol, p. 125). However, many critics also saw
Washington as harming the situation of African Americans because he said that they should

12
do the best out of their situation, relying on the economic opportunities they have rather than
wishing for higher education and status as it could bring dissatisfaction (see Domina, p. 74).
2.2.2. “Double Consciousness” – W.E.B. Du Bois’ Ideology
In addition to Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois was another influential figure in
American race relations. In comparison to Booker T. Washington, he represented the
educated class of African Americans, something with what Washington has often partly
disagreed (see Domina, p. 73). In his opinion, Washington’s striving for work and money
“completely overshadowed the higher aims of life” (Franklin, p. 393), namely education. As
the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
he was very actively involved in changing the situation of African Americans. He was also
the one who predicted that race relation issues would last until the twentieth century (see
Domina, p. 75).
In his work The Souls of Black Folk that was originally published in 1901, W.E.B. Du
Bois elaborates on the term “double-consciousness” that refers to the experience and
psychological challenge of oppressed people in society. He particularly brings up black
duality, indicating the conflict within African Americans of being both black and American.
Thus, the black man can only see himself through the lens of race:
[T]he Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American
world, - a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the
revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always
looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul buy the tape of a world that
looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro: two souls,
two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength
alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois, 16-17)
According to Du Bois, African Americans still do not know of their actual unique abilities
because they were always held back. There is a veil separating the races, from which the
black man sees himself in the eyes of the other, mostly being invisible to the white man.
Many generations of African Americans have lived in America so that they all have
established an American identity with African roots, making them the African American he
is today: one person with two inseparable selves. However, this feeling of having two souls
within one body and not being accepted becomes more difficult and the American Negro,
therefore, tries to free himself from feeling torn as it is also shown in historical events, court
decisions, riots, sit-ins and many more. Consequently, W.E.B. Du Bois illuminated the

13
experience of African Americans in a white post-slavery world. Then again the “[African
American] would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows
that Negro blood has a message for the world” (17), indicating that African Americans
should not change and transform themselves into a copy of whites, but rather remain unique
and tell the world their story. They should defend their identity as Africans living in America
who can integrate and assimilate into society and deserve equal treatments in all spheres of
life with the help of education. Thus, Americanization was seen as necessary, however the
appeal was not to lose cultural heritage.
Being knowledgeable in African studies, W.E.B. Du Bois also became the mentor of
Lorraine Hansberry. Not only is he regarded as an as inspirational mentor by Lorraine
Hansberry concerning race relations and African identity, she also saw him as one of her
role models. When she came to New York to undertake another kind of education, she took
a course on Africa with him and also started to work for the newspaper Freedom that dealt
with various topics concerning African American society and politics (see Wilkerson,
“Political Radicalism”, p. 42). Dealing with social issues and developing an awareness for
the importance of change, she understood that the American Negro was living in a cage, for
“[h]e simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American,
without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity
closed […] (Du Bois, p. 17). Due to open debates and court decisions, every American, black
or white, felt that it was time for a change because “the freedman has not yet found freedom
in his promised land” (18). African Americans were disappointed for being “a poor race in
a land of dollars” (20). This expresses the possibility of what each of them can achieve in
America and their expectations. However, mediums to bring these possibilities forward are
not made available to African Americans. Furthermore, the need to change the world
together, thus “each growing and aiding each” (22), not only calls for freedom, but also for
the assimilation of African Americans. Integration is a weaker term for this. African
Americans had to totally be absorbed into American life. They had to be integrated into
white society in order to be able to obtain equality. So, African Americans had to strive to
have similar education as their white peers and be successful in life. By founding the
NACCP, W.E.B. Du Bois provided a beginning to a more successful way of integrating the
American Negro.
Comparing the ideologies of Washington and Du Bois, one will notice their different
ways of thinking and methods. Nevertheless, they strove to reach the same goal. At the time
when Booker T. Washington actively called for peace and acceptance for his race in stating
that the dreams of African Americans should remain small, trivial and limited, it can be said

14
that he was very concerned with creating a new image of the free American Negro. Despite
the negative aspects of the progress of equality, the creation of a new image was necessary
because people of America needed to get used to the new situation of their fellow African
Americans. It is important to say that they lived in the Deep South where racial issues and
progress developed slightly slowly. America has been a country where racism has reigned
for too long and people, black or white, should be encouraged to develop and understand
social changes. With the influence of W.E.B. Du Bois, voices of the oppressed became more
and stronger because oppressed people could not stay oppressed forever. The aim of W.E.B.
Du Bois at that time was to promote change effectively for the benefit and well-being of
African Americans as they did not feel at home in their adopted country. Therefore, W.E.B.
Du Bois called for higher education for his race with the intention to gain access to higher
positions among the scholars and politicians of America in order to improve his people’s
position and reputation in society. They both had in common seeing the black experience
and interpreting it within a world where the black man was invisible to the white. The aim
was to be a sort of translator for the races and to gain access to the people’s minds and hearts.
Even today, scholars discuss the relationship and opposition of these two influential African
Americans. The opinions on this topic differ: some “historians have portrayed this larger-
than-life figure (Washington) as the archenemy of Du Bois, and some have portrayed him
as black agent for white business interests in the South” (Alridge, p. 52). Although the two
scholars had close contact with each other, Du Bois was said to view Washington’s
“educational philosophy” (53) as holding African Americans back in subjects concerning
higher education, civil rights, the achievement of the American Dream and even the chance
for political power. Furthermore, it did also support a notion of the inferiority of the race
(53). Both men had individual conceptions of what had been appropriate to do at that time.
Washington chose the peaceful way, saying that the white race had to get used to African
Americans and that they needed to adapt to American culture in order to become an equal
part of society, so that, soon, both races could live equally side by side. Du Bois believed in
a more radical way because it was the only chance to be heard. He believed more in
education for everyone being the key to social problems as it was “a powerful tool for
improving society for all citizens” (143).
Despite the different ideologies, both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois shared
the same view regarding their people’s situation and experience in this country. They wanted
to change their situations and try to promote this change in an effective way. Thus, they can
be regarded as speakers for their race and aimed to gain access to the people’s minds and
hearts and for their race to integrate into society.

15
2.3. “In the Land of the Free?” Segregation and Integration in the United States in
the Twentieth Century
In 1896, the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson that permitted separate but equal
facilities had a huge influence on early segregation in the United States. In short, it was a
great disadvantage for African American citizens. In theory, these separate facilities could
be equal, but in practice they never were (see Domina, p. 24). Being apart of the American
life, it was difficult for the African American people to assimilate or even integrate into
society. It was certainly very difficult for them to live in two worlds at the same time.
Although the struggle for civil rights was linked to the 1960’s, it can be said that the most
important goals and changes already took place in the late 1950’s. However, Jim Crow was
a burden for African Americans: those especially in the South “faced racial separation and
discrimination in practically every area of American life, from the cradle to the grave”
(Harris, p. 12). It forced African Americans to become creative, which lead to ways to
circumvent barriers of segregation. Since the advance of the motor age, for instance, more
and more African Americans possessed a car. However, roads, especially in the Deep South,
were not safe enough for African American travelers. William H. Green recorded all suitable
and safe places for the them in various cities in the South and created a little booklet named
The Negro Motorist Green Book. At that time, it was considered a “credit to the Negro Race”
(Smith in Green, p. 2) as it contributed to improving the quality of life and safety. Eventually,
symbolic hope rose when the White House legally eliminated racial segregation in public
facilities in Washington D.C (Harris, p. 13). Another important aspect that made African
Americans feel part of society and also improved their self- esteem was their military service
in World War II as “[m]ore than a million black men and women served in the military” (15)
and equally fought for America like their white fellows. Even though it should have been
regarded as a highly noble service for their country, African American men and also “[b]lack
women, many of whom served in the Nurse Corpse, also faced racial discrimination during
the war” (16). During the war, the influential document An American Dilemma, written by
Gunnar Myrdal, was published in 1944. In this document, he warned the nation that it could
not maintain its positive image of the liberator international while at home they oppress
African Americans and other minorities (18). With his work, the race issue would become
finally a national one that was also the basis for the strategy of the upcoming civil rights
movement (18).
Taking the arguments for racial discrimination into account, it can be seen that various
claims were attempted to be justified. Supporters of segregation drew their justification from

16
the Bible, science, history, literature and other fields. In some literary works, for example in
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, it is told that slaves were physically examined by either their
slave holders or other biologists because it was indeed believed that African Americans
differed from whites physically. Every physical characteristic was reported, for example, the
structure of the hair, the difference of the brain, the way they nursed their children and so
on. Many of those arguments listed above were very prominent and even scientists
confirmed that black people were highly inferior to white people concerning intelligence and
evolutionary status (cf. Domina, p. 26). Plausible reasons should be provided why social
integration would be destructive to the nation. Even though those views were set aside later,
the opinion that the black race was inferior remained for a long time. Therefore, integration
was feared also because people would not want that whites and blacks would mingle as it
would weaken the white race (27). Intermarriage was unlikely to happen at that time, even
though slave holders had sexual relationships with their female slaves earlier. Consequently,
it was also legally prohibited by law in “22 states of the union, most of them in the South
and the West” (Gordon, p. 165). This also indicated the communal separation very clearly.
Also, children from former slave owners were born, but would also be seen as inferior due
to their family background and their appearances. It was additionally argued that African
American males “experienced an uncontrollable desire for white women” (Domina, p, 26)
that was seen as highly dangerous. “[T]he natural superiority of white Americans” (27) was
in danger and thus also America’s prestige in the world. In Gunnar Myrdal’s work An
American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, it was stated that most of
African Americans “were interested principally in employment, equal justice, education, and
the right to vote” (Harris, p. 24). They did not wish further social interaction or intermarriage
with whites as feared but established a sub-society or their own (24).
Not only biological arguments were mentioned that should provide motives against
integration, but also evidence from the Bible. Racists claimed that it was the will of God that
races should remain separated for the reason that God had created entirely distinct races that
he did not want to mix (see Domina, p. 27). Every moral white Christian should consequently
follow those beliefs. Due to the fact that African Americans were mostly Christians
themselves, these motives could also be followed. If they did not belong to the Baptists or
Methodist churches, “they supported the numerous small storefront churches of the Holiness
or Spiritualist variety” (Gordon, p. 171). As aforementioned, the same values as religious
beliefs could facilitate assimilation in theory; however, in practice it was not yet granted.
On the one hand, there are some, who were in favor of a full integration of African
Americans, who use the biblical verses to support their arguments. They argued that the

17
Bible did not distinguish among people by race, but that all were created equal and all were
brothers and sisters. Love and respect, as taught by the Bible, was the way to freedom and
equality (see Domina, p. 28). On the other hand, there are some, who tried to argue by
quoting the Declaration of Independence transcript that “all men” and that everyone was
created equal (28). If all Americans truly believed in their constitution praising liberty and
same rights for all, then all people living in the country must not be segregated. In the course
of the civil rights movement, this argument was very strong among advocates of integration.
On a political level, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
founded in 1909, continued to fight Jim Crow laws in court until the famous Supreme Court
decision Brown v. Broad of Education in 1954 created a path-breaking case. The NAACP
argued that separated school systems were unconstitutional: “[t]o separate them [black
children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates
a feeling of inferiority as to the status in the community that may affect their hearts and
minds in a way unlikely ever to be done” (Harris, p. 26). As a result, the NAACP won the
case and Jim Crow laws gradually lost their validity. Due to the fact that there was no
deadline when desegregate schools in the country, some states, especially those in the Deep
South, resisted desegregation. Another court decision, named Brown II, pleaded for
desegregation with “all deliberate speed” (27). It still took many years to enforce the decision
as “[m]any southern states waged a campaign of massive resistance” (27). African
Americans faced racial violence in school when sending their children to all-white schools,
and fought costly cases in court. Even African American children had to endure hostility and
hate from their white classmates. Consequently, many African American parents had to
defend their children. The “Southern Manifesto” accused the Supreme Court of abusing their
power and stated that they would do everything to prevent the implementation of the court’s
decision (27).
It was not until the famous and sad case of Emmett Till that immediately forced a push
for change in the system, aiming to end discrimination of African American citizens. The
incident took place in Money, Mississippi, in the South, on August 28, 1955. During that
time, there were laws that existed and attempted to desegregate and integrate African
Americans. The lynching nevertheless continued, particularly in the South. When a fourteen-
year old boy from the North, who visited family in the South boasted of having a white
girlfriend in the North where racism was steadily decreasing, his cousins and friends asked
him to ask a young white woman working in a little store for a date (30). He dared to ask her
and according to some witnesses, he touched her, squeezed her hand and after leaving the
store he even “wolf-whistled at her” (30). Her father, “especially as a white man in the rural

18
South, felt compelled to protect his honor and to uphold the sanctity of white womanhood”
(30). Therefore, he kidnaped the boy, beat him up, shot him and tried to get rid of his body
by throwing it into a river. Three days later, the boy’s body was found. Although Emmett’s
uncle reports his killers, they were not punished for Emmett’s death. When his body reached
his family in Chicago for burial, his mother opened the coffin to show everyone what has
happened to her young son. The case of Emmett Till marked the beginning of the modern
civil rights movement. Change had to be made. In the same year, the Montgomery bus
boycott finally set an end to segregation and the Jim Crow laws. In the city of Montgomery,
bus segregation was part of everyday life. Working class African Americans found it hard
to avoid because they had to take the bus to school or work. Africans Americans would often
face discrimination by bus drivers because they had to take a seat in the back of the bus or
offer their seats to whites. According to an African American woman named Rosa Parks,
who was an influential person in the civil rights movement, bus drivers were discourteous
to African Americans and the act of paying in the front and going out of the bus to board at
the back was dishonorable. She said: “I don’t think any segregation law angered black people
more in Montgomery than bus segregation” (Parks, p. 108). It served as a “reminder of their
“place” in American society as a subordinated group with little control over their lives”
(Harris, p. 31). This strong and courageous woman Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat:
“I was tired of giving in to white people” (Parks, p. 1). This led to her arrest for civil
disobedience. Some months later, the NACCP together with Nixon organized a bus boycott
to show support for Parks and all African Americans and to end segregation. On that day,
African Americans would avoid buses and even set up a rally of which Martin Luther King
was the leader (see Harris, p. 33). Eventually, after bombings of Martin Luther King’s home,
“the MIA decided to file a lawsuit in federal court against segregation on the buses in
Montgomery” (34). The resistance, calling for change, lasted for more than a year. Rosa
Park’s court case and the Montgomery bus boycott are important milestones for the rights
of African Americans that eventually broke Jim Crow laws.
As already mentioned, desegregation and integration are slow processes, as is proven in
the case of Little Rock. In 1957, the governor of Arkansas appointed the National Guard to
prevent several African American students from entering the Central High School in Little
Rock (37). Later, the black students were guarded by the Police while an angry white mob
tried to chase the students. The struggle of African American students became known to the
public, as they appear on television and their voices were heard in radios and on the streets.

19
2.4. “Looking for Lorraine Hansberry” – the Daily Life of African Americans in
Segregated America
Who was Lorraine Hansberry? According to James Baldwin, she “was a very young woman,
with an overpowering vision” (Nemiroff, p. xiii). Additionally, she is described by Imani
Perry as “a Black lesbian woman born into the established middle class who became
Greenwich Village bohemian leftist married to a man, a Jewish communist songwriter”
(Perry, p. 3). Being born in Chicago in 1930, she grew up in a racial and segregated
environment. She knew best when it comes to the term racism, poverty, segregation, mob
violence and being an African American in American society of the beginning of the 20th
century.
In the following section, an overview of the circumstances of basic aspects of everyday
life of the African American population is provided and it is linked to personal experiences
of the author of A Raisin in the Sun. It is considered necessary to tell the story of a child
growing up in a country such as America. Segregation in housing, education and
employment will be discussed to try and illustrate the situation of African Americans at the
time when the play was written and produced on Broadway.
2.4.1. Segregation in Housing
The separate housing and neighborhood for whites and blacks did not happen overnight nor
was it a new policy. It appeared to be the result of various Jim Crow laws and limitations set
by white Americans that made African Americans isolated to a limited space in society.
They lived in an isolated and underprivileged neighborhood. The term that has been used for
that area is ghetto. Ghettoization for blacks was a reality that lasted over a century (see
Massey, 39). For Lorraine Hansberry, who was born into the black ghetto of Chicago in
1930, life within such a poor and overcrowded area was her reality for several years.
Together with her family she lived, as many other African American families at that time,
in the South Side of Chicago. Despite these poor living conditions her parents had still
managed to pursue higher education. Her mother Nannie became a teacher and her father
Carl, a successful real estate businessman (see Perry, p. 9). Due to their hard work, they
became an aspiring middle-class African American family who achieved a better life,
materially speaking. However, black elites were living in the same segregated ghetto as their
middle-class fellows (104) in comparison to their white elite counterparts who would enjoy
their upper status in a cozy, big and expensive houses. Due to this fact, Lorraine Hansberry
would describe her two best friends morally similar to herself, even though the one was the
daughter of a postal clerk and the other of a chauffeur (104). Growing up in the ghetto gave

20
her an insight and a unique feeling of deep compassion for the conditions of the social issues
at that time.
There were some who tried to improve the living conditions of African Americans. Carl
Hansberry, for example, had the chance to own three-unit apartment buildings that he would
divide in order to provide some space for discriminated African Americans (9). Due to the
shortage of space in the black ghetto of Chicago, Mister Hansberry found a well-paid
solution that was also followed by a positive reputation in the eyes of the community that
lived there (9). The Great Depression resulted in a much poorer living conditions in the
ghetto. Young Lorraine would remember and describe their situation as follows: “I think
you could find the tempo of my people on their back porches. The honesty of their living is
there in the shabbiness” (Nemiroff, p. 45). Caused by the poor conditions of the ghetto her
“people are poor” and tired but they have not lost their determination to live. “Our Southside
is a place apart: each piece of our living is a protest” (45). Living on South Parkway, the
Hansberrys shared their limited sphere with other minorities. Recounting childhood
memories of the summer in the Southside, young Lorraine reveals her longing for exploring
the outside world, leaving limited space and freedom behind. She also confesses that she did
not know how and where to go, morally speaking: “why was it important to take a small
step, a teeny step, or the most desired of all- one GIANT step? A giant step to where” (49).
African Americans had to generally face discrimination in every aspect of life, also in terms
of housing. They had low socioeconomic status that resulted in poor housing. Therefore,
ghettoization is certainly the result of segregation and prejudice. Whites would also address
social differences as reasons for the importance of separated neighborhoods (see Massey, p.
41). Furthermore, when an African American family moved into a white neighborhood for
various reasons, they would have to face hostility: “whites, through their churches, realtors,
or neighborhood organizations, would take up a collection and offer to buy the black
homeowner out, hinting at less civilized inducements to follow if the offer was refused” (54).
And if this family refused to move out, violent resistance, such as bombings, would escalate.
There was indeed an incident, between 1917 and 1921, when “fifty-eight black homes were
bombed” (54) in Chicago. For the white homeowners “the most powerful argument against
integration was that as soon as a black family moved into a neighborhood, property values
would begin to fall” (Domina, p. 27). In 1924, the National Association of Real Estate
Boards supported the white homeowner by prohibiting the sale or rent property to minorities,
including African Americans, in white neighborhoods, even though some homeowners did
not follow or accept such a decision (24). Due to some protests, the so-called restrictive
covenants limited sales to minorities. This was practiced until 1948, when it was found to

21
be unconstitutional. However, many areas remained segregated due to discrimination until
the 1970s. This changed with the Fair Housing Act in 1968 that protects minorities from
discrimination in buying houses (24).
In 1937, Carl Hansberry attempted to get away from the ghetto of Chicago: he purchased
a brick building at 6140 South Rhodes Avenue, near the University of Chicago in an all-
white neighborhood. Lorraine was seven years old at that time (see Perry, p. 12). Then, Carl
Hansberry was about to go to jail because he “challenge[d] Chicago real estate covenants,
which legally enforced housing discrimination” (Carter, Hansberry’s Drama, p. 9). The
purchased house was located within an area where “a private land agreement in which
neighbors in the area had agreed to not sell to African Americans and other[s]” (Perry, p.12)
was made. It was called the Woodlawn neighborhood. Carl was aware of it but that did not
prevent him from holding on to his belief. He was a man who believed that the American
way “could successfully be made to work to democratize the United States” (Nemiroff, p,
51). The Woodland Property Owners Association filled in a claim in “circuit court to force
the Hansberry family to leave the property” (Perry, p. 17). A woman, named Anne Lee, came
to the family with a lawsuit charging that a law agreement forbidding sales to blacks had
been violated. It was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court, so that the family had to move.
Carl Hansberry being familiar with laws would not let this happen. Their case was then
included into law books because it reached the United States Supreme Court. It was known
as the Hansberry v. Lee case in 1940. They fought and gained the right to have the property.
He asked the NAACP and Supreme Life, which was one of the largest black-owned
insurance companies, for help that would provide him with a loan (17). Lorraine describes
that incidents saying that “he [her father] spent a small personal fortune, his considerable
talent, and many years of his life fighting” (Nemiroff, p. 51). While the head of the family
was fighting in court, the rest of the family was exposed to white discrimination. Lorraine’s
memories were disturbing. She describes her early time living in a house as hostile, where
“howling mobs surrounded” (51) their house. Young Lorraine was almost hit by a brick that
was thrown in the house by some whites protesting in front of the it (see Carter, Hansberry’s
Drama, p. 9). Moreover, she remembered her mother “patrolling [their] house all night with
a loaded German [L]uger” (Nemiroff, p. 51). The aforementioned traumatic incident is the
basis of Raisin.
In addition to that, a black coauthor of the magazine Defender would describe the
aforementioned housing situation in the South Side ghetto: “The entire Negro community is
characterized by ‘chiseling landlords’, but this does not obviate the fact that nearly 2,000,000
Negro citizens are forced to live in an area which has housing facilities for only 150,000”

22
(Moore, p. 45). Eventually, after the Hansberry case that was tried in 1940, several more
“blocks of the city were opened up to Black residents” (Perry, p. 17). The Black Belt busted
open and blacks moved to other neighborhoods while whites still tried to defend their areas
because practice of housing discrimination continued unbanned in Chicago as well as other
bigger cities (see Carter, Hansberry’s Drama, p. 9). Unfortunately, “[t]he cost, in emotional
turmoil, time and money” (Nemiroff, p. 51) led to the early death of Lorraine Hansberry’s
beloved father, who fought white supremacy his entire life. Before that, he had attempted to
move with his family to Mexico, where he desired to have more hope for social integration
than in the United States. This thought was considered an option that more African
Americans had at that time (see Perry, p. 22). Carl Hansberry died at the age of fifty-one.
From 1940 to 1970 the housing situation was still horrible. Within the real estate industry,
African Americans remained disadvantaged in housing. A study conducted by Helper in
1969 revealed that “80 percent of agents refused to sell blacks property in white
neighborhoods, and 68 percent refused to rent them property” (Massey, p. 68). Some whites,
however, believed that integration should occur naturally rather than force it; however, they
created legislation of their own to allow African Americans to move into white areas. With
it the proof was given that racial integration could not yet take place. Thus, white and black
neighborhoods remained separated for still a long time due to white prejudice. African
Americans had only the courts to turn to in order to be compensated for the fraud, if they
were even listened to.
The main reason why moving out of the ghettos was necessary for African Americans
was the poor living conditions that became unbearable. Moreover, African Americans and
particularly middle-class black people dreamed of a better life, they “sought more agreeable
surroundings, higher- quality schools, lower crime rates, bigger houses, larger properties and
a better class of people” (58). Even the black elite was not excluded from racism in housing.
For social development in society it was an important step towards a better future and also
the accumulation of wealth. On account on systematic segregation, African Americans were
also excluded from “inner-city markets” (76). The opportunity for African American
workers to get well-paid jobs was therefore low.
Even though it was made eventually illegal in the 1970s to not sell or rent property to
minorities, it was still practiced by many and in bigger cities of the United States.
Furthermore, even when integration was successful and African Americans found jobs or a
house in white-dominated areas or fields, their social lives continued to be segregated.
African Americans and whites did not interact socially, but stayed among their own kind

23
(see Domina, p. 25). Due to this, the question remains as to whether assimilation and
integration would ever take place in this country.
2.4.2. Employment, Opportunities and Poverty
The previous section elaborated African Americans’ restricted rights to buy and own
properties. This section will explain the cause and impact of poverty on African Americans.
The prevention of buying and owning a house in a “better” neighborhood made African
Americans live in poor areas all over the country. What made many of them live under poor
conditions was the limited access to employment. According to a labor-market analysis
made in the 1960s, it can be said that segregated housing influences inequality in the
employment area (see Turner, p. 153). Moreover, “the concentration of blacks in segregated
central-city neighborhoods limited their access to employment as growing numbers of jobs
moved to predominantly white suburban locations” (153). Even though African Americans
had the opportunity to pursue a higher education, they still were forced to live in ghettos and
disadvantaged areas, as already mentioned in the previous section with regards to Lorraine
Hansberry’s biography.
Those who were not capable of pursuing a higher education were pushed into poverty
or to low-payed jobs. Without a higher educational degree, they could only have jobs that
were underpaid and some even faced unemployment. Segregation of housing was also an
aspect. This resulted in “distress in black neighborhoods” (153) and improved criminality
among them.
Even though Lorraine Hansberry grew up in a middle-class environment, she had been
fascinated by her fellow working-class people at an early age. According to her experience,
they had the will to not stand still while white supremacy run over them: “Above all, there
had been an aspect of the society of kids from the ghetto which demanded utmost respect:
they fought. The girls as well as the boys. THEY FOUGHT” (Nemiroff, p. 65).
Due to the fact that in 1947 “the President’s Committee on Civil Rights recommended
the enactment of fair employment legislation at both federal and state levels” (Franklin, p.
611), many low-skilled jobs were offered to African Americans or jobs that were seen as
morally not justifiable like running a liquor store. Some time later, employment
opportunities increased in aircraft, automobiles or chemical industries (611). Some firms
started to hire African Americans as “clerks, bookkeepers, and buyers” (611). However, it
was not an easy and quick process as many whites defended their job positions and refused
to work with African Americans “white workers threatened to quit if Negroes were

24
employed” (614). The resistance was strong, yet it did not completely prevent some African
Americans to better their job positions or to get well-paid jobs.
Employment also had an impact on African American woman, which brings up the
gender issues and gender relations. Gender relations are also an important subject in A Raisin
in the Sun. It is demonstrated in the character of an African American woman, who wishes
to become a doctor. At that time, women were still confined to the domestic sphere. They
were defined clearly as housewives and mothers. Due to poverty, many African American
women had to seek work for their families. In this case, the discussion about the position of
women in society had arisen. However, concerning the job market and thanks to Booker T.
Washington who promoted domestic and agrarian jobs, African American men as well as
women were entitled to these jobs. Nevertheless, male-dominated jobs and female-
dominated jobs were common at that time.
2.4.3. Segregation in Education
Segregation in the educational sector was also practiced during the mid-twentieth century.
The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in schools. Whites and blacks could not
attend the same school. The violation of this law would lead to immense punishments for
blacks as well as whites, particularly in the South. For a long time, it was believed that
segregated school systems were equal. In practice, segregation had a psychological effect
more particularly on African American children when taking the school education quality
and conditions into account. In major cities, for example, there were only one public school
for black students, but there were four schools for white students in comparison (see Patrick,
p. 259). Consequently, this caused major overcrowding issues. The schools for black
students also lacked teachers. Forty black students, for example, had only one teacher
compared to one white teacher for lesser number of white students. Also, the salary for black
and white teachers was unequal: an African American teacher would earn 25 to 75 dollars
whereas a white teacher would earn double that amount (259). As a result, black students
would receive a poorer-quality education than whites. As depicted by Lorraine Hansberry,
she “was given, during the grade school years, one-half the amount of education prescribed
by the Board of Education” (Nemiroff, p. 63), resulting in a poor ability, for example, to
count, disadvantaging her later in life (63). The ghetto and school segregation would leave
scars on every individual as “[t]o be imprisoned in the ghetto is to be forgotten - or
deliberately cheated of one’s birthright- at best” (63). Not only in school, but also at African
American homes, children were taught very early that the white race was dominant over
them. Black parents often warned their children: “if I don’t beat you, the white man will kill

25
you” (Chernyshev, p. 649). Already as a child, African Americans learned that they have to
be protected from whites as the other race would do them harm. The black parent taught
them how to grow in a segregated, discriminating society. However, they also taught them
how to be proud of their African heritage and have self-esteem. Parents, therefore, instilled
racial pride and love by surrounding them with predominantly positive images of blacks
(649).
Over time, the educational system underwent many reforms. The aforementioned
Supreme Court decision Brown v. Broad of Education opened white schools to black
students and gradually ended segregation in the educational sector. In the North, some
schools would be able to decide on their own whether they would allow black students.
Black families would start to send their children to white kindergartens or schools that were
actually only for whites. However, blacks were not fully accepted and integrated. They
would usually not be fully acknowledged by white professors, fail the courses or would not
be granted a grade above ‘C’ (647). Lorraine Hansberry’s experience in integrated
educational facilities had shaped her personality: “In any case, my mother sent me to
kindergarten in white fur in the middle of the depression; the kids beat me up; and I think it
was from that moment I became – a rebel” (Nemiroff, p. 63). After attending the
kindergarten and elementary with white children, she also attended the integrated
Englewood High School where she was exposed to white violence and discrimination. White
students would organize a strike in 1947. Hansberry would describe this incident as a white
mob against the “veterans” (71), who had come voluntarily from other high schools “waving
baseball bats and shouting slogans “(71): “And so they had come, pouring out of the bowels
of the ghetto, the children of the unqualified oppressed: the black workingclass in their
costumes […] She could never forget one thing: They had fought back!” (71). This incident
resulted in a decision by the Chicago school board that segregation was by all means illegal.
However, she would be ashamed of the apathy of the black elites as they would just stand
there and watch the strike take place.
2.5. “Walking on Revolutionary Road” – The Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a necessary and radical way to introduce and address the
issue of the African American population in society. During this movement, African
Americans were concerned with several ideas and ideologies that would help them gain
equal rights. The positions and opinions on this movement diverge in many senses. First of
all, it is important to mention that pride was cultivated in many African Americans. Those
were against everything that was “white”. However, there are some who just desired to be

26
assimilated into society. It can be said that both visions and opinions differed extremely from
one another. Lorraine Hansberry was highly criticized at that time for favoring integration.
In addition, some sociologist claimed that the civil rights movement was a middle-class
movement (see Harris, p. 34), but many would agree that every African American supported
freedom. Those, for example, who benefited the most from the bus boycott and its positive
outcome were poor or working-class African Americans because they were the once who
were affected the most by desegregation of public transportation.
Lorraine Hansberry had a clear message concerning the movement that recapitulates it:
Negroes must concern themselves with every single means of struggle: legal, illegal, passive, active,
violent and non-violent. That they must harass, debate, petition, give money to court struggles, sit-in,
lie-down, strike, boycott, sing hymns, pray on steps—and shoot from their windows when the racists
come cruising through their communities (Nemiroff, p. 222)
Her words run through every tool of resistance of the movement. She engaged herself in
non-violent protest that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The basic idea of this kind of
protest was that people had a moral duty to disobey the law when it was seen unjust and
misanthropic. The law should be opposed but in peaceful protest (see Marger, p. 236). Worth
mentioning is the rise of Black Nationalism that had an impact on every African American
in the country. The term Black Nationalism came about when a man named Robert F.
Williams resisted violent acts of the Ku Klux Klan to defend himself and others. In his
opinion, his fellows should stand up for their rights and defend themselves, if necessary,
through the use of violence. No longer should the American Negro endure violence passively
(see Harris, p. 39). Thus, active resistance was born.
Luckily, the abovementioned incident also led to several non-violent sit-ins by students,
who were for example not served by whites in cafes and restaurants due to their race, the
formation of freedom riders, who went through the country to test if the new established
laws were practiced, and so on. Even Lorraine Hansberry admired them because their
distinctive task was necessary for the movement. In a letter to a woman named Ann of the
Routes, she states that she is going to meet one of the leaders of the Freedom Riders of the
South. She also expresses her admiration in that letter “my dear, what truly extraordinary
young people. They make one almost blind with resuspicions that the human race really is-
what? - possible, I guess” (Nemiroff, p. 149).
Concerning the black pride ideology, however, the best-known representative was
beyond doubt Malcolm X. He was a “force of bitterness and hatred that comes perilously
close to advocating violence” (Harris, p.48). The movement was followed by the civil rights

27
movement or even was created simultaneously. It was spread through the rows of African
Americans as a result of frustration over lasting discrimination and racism. People who
followed this belief tended to reject everything that could be associated with whites.
Therefore, assimilation and integration were neglected or questioned because the white man
was regarded as being the devil par excellence. Ever since African Americans knew of their
worth, free from imposed self-hatred by white supremacy, he would gain a new self, so it
was believed. Amiri Baraka also belonged to this kind of movement that even questioned
the “civil rights movement, the goal of integration, nonviolence” (49). The belief that
African Americans should have pride in their African heritage in order to find true freedom
(65) leads to the establishment of the Black Panther Party and a new movement and
eventually to the Black Arts Movement that sought to link art and politics in order to
establish and strengthen Black Consciousness. At the Black Power Conference, held in 1967,
people even called for dividing the United States into black and white in order to eventually
escape white oppression. Nevertheless, there was Martin Luther King and his supporters
who believed in the non-violent and successful integration and assimilation of the American
Negro; however, he also appealed for a rapid solution (46). His famous I Have a Dream
speech held in 1963, appealed to black and whites, as the black can only be free with the
help of every ally (52) which made him to the ultimate symbol of the civil rights movement.
Being well versed in racial pride as being taught by various famous and influential
people during her childhood, including her uncle William Leo Hansberry, a university
professor at Harvard, Lorraine Hansberry’s own involvement in racial struggle began in
1950, when she moved to New York, where she joined the popular paper Freedom (see
Carter, Hansberry’s Drama, p. 9-10). Her first play A Raisin in the Sun would be described
as revolutionary because the message of the play can be regarded as passive resistance.
However, it was often misunderstood as promoting assimilation and integration and as being
a symbol for a peaceful moving into an all-white neighborhood as an African American
family. White society could not understand why it should not be interpreted as happy ending
opining hypocrisy in society. Furthermore, she started doing various activities that mirrored
her political beliefs and social activism at that time and also called for active resistance that
mirrored the fighting spirit of the movement. She was concerned in illustrating the “universal
struggle against oppression and injustice” (Carter, Hansberry’s Drama, p. 15).

28
3. “Dreams Deferred?” – Lorraine Hansberry’s Play A Raisin in the Sun
and the Debate over Assimilation
When Lorraine Hansberry was asked what concerned her the most about being a dramatist,
she answered that the human race concerns her because she “can’t think of anything that
people do where conflict is born that isn’t dramatically interesting” (Nemiroff, p. 151). Her
art and dramatic piece of work can be viewed as a product of her time. She believed that “all
art is ultimately social: “that which agitates and that which prepares the mind for slumber”
(Hansberry, p. 5). Consequently, every message that is carried by a piece of art is social, no
matter what message it conveys. She personally decided to focus on human rights and
African Americans for her first play, as she had believed throughout her life that “the world
can be changed for the better” (Nemiroff, p.188) and she spent her whole life and dramatic
energy doing just that: “[T]he stars” she thought “are very much within our reach” (189).
For her, it would have been impossible to distance herself from the social events she
witnessed in the twentieth century: “I say all this to say that I cannot live with sighted eyes
and feeling heart and not know and react to the miseries which afflict this world” (Hansberry,
“The Negro Writer, p. 12). Her sighted eyes saw the struggle of African Americans,
segregation, injustice and still, her feeling heart would not let her lose hope in humanity and
a brighter future for African Americans. Therefore, she was also a believer of fully
integrating African Americans in society, giving them the opportunity to be African and
American in the same way, enjoying equal rights – the white man had just to listen.
Hansberry’s presented her article “The Negro Writer and his Roots” just some months
before her first play was performed on Broadway in 1959, at a conference hosted by AMSAC
in New York city. The conference was about African writers that gathered various African
writers and intellectuals that aimed at talking about Africa and the relationship between
African Americans and the current situation in American society (see Baldwin, p. 106-107).
The article clearly consolidates her intentions and beliefs, which she wanted to convey into
the world, as an African American female writer. She believes that the social problems of
her people were not being paid attention thoroughly at that time due to a lack of interest or
even an oppressed feeling of shame of white Americans: “If I am asked if my people enjoy
equal opportunity in the most basic aspects of American life, housing, employment,
franchise - I must and will say: No.” (Hansberry, “The Negro Writer, p. 10). She goes on
insisting upon the fact that the African American people were deprived of their birthright
and that there was a limitation of the American Dream as experienced by African Americans.
America is, to her, a two-faced nation who fought in the war and felt pity for Hungarians or

29
Koreans and then oppresses and still lynches African Americans at home (see Hansberry,
“The Negro Writer”, 10). Above all, the time was ripe to tell the world and her fellow
Americans about their struggle, as every citizen in America could literally see that change
was about to come: “I am prepared to tell all America and the world about our people”
(Hansberry, “The Negro Writer”, p. 10). In creating her first revolutionary play she depicts
realism: “The realistic playwright states not only what is, but what can and should be
“(Hansberry in Bond, p. 184). Therefore, she moved towards being “a voice of the whole
United States, of its dynamic culture and its tortured politics (Bond, p. 184). With her literary
work, she expressed the truth and reality of African American lives: discrimination,
segregation, assimilation, integration and deferred dreams of equality as well as chances.
With her play A Raisin in the Sun, she connects with the tradition of naturalism which
automatically includes a sentimental note creating empathy for the family. Lorraine
Hansberry introduces us to Americans who people have never had the chance to see before.
By casting a light into the interior and thus stressing the importance of domesticity she is
able to create a new modern drama. The three-act play is set in South Side Chicago
“sometimes between World War II and the present” (Hansberry, Raisin, p. 24) in which the
African American family, named the Youngers, have to live in an American society
dominated by race and hostility. After the death of the head of the family, Senior Younger,
the family waits for a check that serves as a magic wand in the course of the play as every
member of the family wishes to fulfill their so long deferred dreams and thus demand for
themselves a part of the American Dream. The setting places the audience in a still racially
segregated South Side of Chicago that displays the social and political reality of African
American lives concerning social and political issues. In the course of the play, various
subjects such as Europe or Western culture, Africa, literature, identity, failure and many
more are mentioned which make aware of Hansberry’s broad knowledge about, for instance,
dramatic techniques, literature and ancient history. The fact that the Youngers put up with
discrimination and adopt a new way of thinking with their attempt to move into an all-white
neighborhood was a unique treatment of African Americans in theatre.
The play opened on Broadway in New York on March 11, 1959, and immediately
became a huge success. The morning after its opening, its brilliance was recognized by
“seven very positive reviews [that] appeared in the major New York newspaper, each in its
own way glowing” (Rose, p. 115). Lorraine’s fame grew from day to day. By the end of
March, the play resounded throughout the land (see Rose, p 130), bringing about “many
requests for interviews with Lorraine” (Rose, p. 130). Unfortunately, in one interview she
was misquoted by saying she was "not a Negro writer - but a writer who happens to be a

30
Negro," (Hansberry in Perry, p. 100), a statement that continues to be reprinted and used
despite its obvious contradiction of Hansberry's belief that her ethnicity essentially shaped
her work. The misunderstood quotation would suggest that her work has nothing to do with
her African roots. Everything was shaped around her African heritage, voluntarily,
unconsciously yet also imprinted on her by the hostility and discrimination of American
society.
There was an additional statement by Hansberry that was also misunderstood: “I told
them this wasn’t a ‘Negro play.’ It was about honest-to-God, believable, many-sided people
who happened to be Negroes” (Carter, Hansberry Drama, p. 21). The play is revolutionary
in its treatment of African Americans because it does not include propaganda or obvious
rebellion. In an interview with Studs Terkel she explains that the Youngers represent all of
her people and that the play is definitely “a Negro play”. The Youngers serve as an example
for the African American experience:
[…] I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic variety is that in order to create the universal
you must pay very great attention to the specific. In other words, I've told people that not only is this a
Negro family, specifically and definitely culturally, but it's not even a New York family or a Southern
Negro family. It is specifically South Side Chicago […] I think people will, to the extent they accept
them and believe them as who they're supposed to be, to that extent they can become everybody. […]
it's definitely a Negro play before it’s anything else (Hansberry, “Make New Sounds”, 371)
By paying specific attention to details, Hansberry provided realistic insight into the lives of
African American working-class people. The treatment of the Negro was from now on
different on stage. Consequently, white America felt a pang of certain guilt and change
coming to the country because no one could deny the fact that African Americans were also
human beings.
The interaction between white and black people is also promoted in the play to achieve
the goal of acceptance. As said by Keyssar “Hansberry writes to persuade a white audience
to accept racial integration” (p. 117). It was essential at that time to convince people,
especially whites, that African Americans were as ordinary as themselves. The missionary
work needed to “abolish their fears; black and white people might live together in harmony”
(Keyssar, p. 114) if racial prejudice would be set aside steadily.
The following analysis of the play A Raisin in the Sun will provide an elaborated study
of every character of the play. Afterwards, the concept of the nature of assimilation will be

31
examined more closely in order to answer the question of whether assimilation into
American culture and society is reachable or already achieved for African Americans.
3.1. “People Who Happen to Be Negroes?” – The Younger Family
Hansberry’s Younger family consists of working-class African Americans whose effort and
frustration in pursuing the American Dream are working on them negatively. The audience
is first confronted with the living conditions of the family in the first scene of act I, as it is
set in the Younger apartment. This immediately establishes them as African American
working-class and categorizes the play as a domestic drama. In creating her drama,
Hansberry followed, even if not strictly, the dramaturgical tradition of classical theatre which
prescribe the unity of time, place and action. Concerning the unity of time, it can be said that
the play’s action does not occur within 24 hours, but that it lasts over several weeks
(Hansberry, Raisin, p. 22). The name of the family, “Younger”, implies a certain newness to
them and also indicates that this family may be in some way different than the rest of African
Americans, which clearly awakens the audience’s interest from the very first moment. The
play is set in the early morning when everyone is still sleeping. With the very first sentence,
Lorraine Hansberry introduces us to the realm of domesticity by creating a living room,
which would be the same as that of so many other African American families living in
America: “The Younger living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it
were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being” (Hansberry,
Raisin, p. 22). It indicates that if the circumstances and the position of this specific family
were different in America, the family’s living room would probably be a comfortable place.
The audience gets to know that there is not only one destructive problem but “a number”
(22) of them and that they will soon become deeper in complexity. In fact, “[w]eariness has,
obviously, won in this room” (23) mirroring the mental and economic state of the family,
which Mama and her dead husband wanted to inhabit “no more than a year” (44) at the
beginning of their marriage. Every character seems to be tired of the living conditions in the
South Side ghetto of Chicago. The lack of money and opportunity is poisoning them, and it
is reflected in every single part of their life. Also, “[t]he sole natural light the family may
enjoy in the course of a day is only that which fights its way through this little window”
(Hansberry, Raisin, p. 24). Everything has to fight, even the light, which can be seen as a
metaphor for hope. Hope is vanishing in the privacy of the Younger’s home, but it still exists.
However, this small window is the only one in the apartment. According to Kate Baldwin,
the window in this domestic play, has been overlooked by many critics. To her, the little
window represents the feeling of being stuck between visibility as well as invisibility of
African Americans at that time (see Baldwin, p. 119). The little window, hence, sums up the

32
African American experience as such: being black and working-class. Those people see
everything as does, for instance, Walter when he looks down from the little window in the
morning saying “[j]ust look at ‘em down there…Running and racing to work” (Hansberry,
Raisin, p. 27). However, they are not seen by the rest of America and consequently stay
invisible, which autonomically draws attention to the emotion of hopelessness and weariness
that the Youngers unmistakably feel.
Furthermore, the stage directions indicate that the apartment has no bathroom, but it is
“in an outside hall and […] is shared by another family or families on the same floor” (25).
This fact hints at the ghetto’s conditions of overcrowding, mentioned in section 2.4.1. The
place has been arranged by the landlord in such a way that it can be said to consist of three
rooms. In the living-room “which must also serve as dining room” (24) there is a tiny place
left over, not even worthy of being called a kitchen, where the family can prepare their food.
Mama and her daughter Beneatha share a bedroom and the other room belongs to Walter
and his wife. The authoress indicates in her stage directions that in the earlier life of the
apartment, the aforementioned room must have served as a breakfast room. Their son Travis
has to sleep in the living room on a make-down bed, due to limited space in the apartment.
Hope seems to have disappeared and “living itself [has] long since vanished from every
atmosphere of this room” (24). The apartment is obviously too small for so many people.
There is a lack of privacy and comfort which makes the family tired and annoyed,
subsequently depressed and capricious. Dissatisfaction often leads to fighting and conflicts
among people and there is no room for privacy which steadily increases instability.
Furthermore, its cleanness is in doubt due to Ruth calling it a “rat trap” (44). This reveals
horrible conditions concerning the cleanness of the building, which they try to keep clean
and comfortable as cleaning-day would be every Saturday (54). In the course of the play, it
is, additionally, revealed that Travis sometimes chases rats that are as big as cats and even
likes to watch how his neighbors run after them in order to kill them (59). It is not a child-
friendly environment at all, and people have to take care to stay healthy among the dirt and
the rats which carry diseases. As mentioned above, the conditions of the black ghettos were
horrible in the United States and the play exposes them artfully.
Life itself seems to give the Youngers a wide berth and everything proceeds slowly. In
the course of the first moments of the play, the members of the household are introduced
gradually. The situation may create a familiar environment for African Americans in the
theater, thus eliciting sympathy due to shared experiences. Whites, on the other hand, may
feel pity for them and also ashamed of their situation – the “villain” has no easy job being
confronted with their crimes.

Assimilation in Lorraine Hansberry s quot A Raisin in the Sun quot.pdf

Assimilation in Lorraine Hansberry s quot A Raisin in the Sun quot.pdf

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