Exemplification: provide 2 examples of events from the movement

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Classification: provide 3 groups or categories that relate to the civil rights movement

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Negation: provide 1 identification of what the movement is not

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Function: provide 2 purposes of the movement

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CULTURAL LITERACY TERMS

• Directions: look up the term or phrase and

briefly 1) identify the origin of the

reference and 2) provide short summary

or description

• Skip 2-3 lines between each and copy on

page 27 of notebook

1. “A Raisin in the Sun”

2. 30 pieces of silver

3. Prometheus

4. African colonization

5. “salt loses its savor”

6. Scarlet O’Hara

7. Mrs. Miniver

8. Adam and Eve

9. Tarzan

10. NAACP

11. “Black Belt” Chicago

12. Booker T. Washington

13. Great Northern Migration (1940-1950)

A RAISIN IN THE SUN PRE-READING

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

• A Raisin in the Sun

• Play

• 1950’s.

• pivotal time during civil rights movement and changes in history.

• During this time period, it was legal to discriminate against

people based on

• race

• Sex

• Employment

• education

• public accommodations.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND• Published in 1959

• four years after Rosa Parks was arrested for

refusing to give up her seat to a white

person on a bus

• Five years after Brown vs. Board

• Five years BEFORE the Civil Rights Act

• One year BEFORE sit ins

• Four years BEFORE protests

• Hansberry’s play illustrates black

America’s struggle to gain equal

access to opportunity and expression

of cultural identity.

• First African American woman to have success

as a writer on Broadway

AUTHOR BACKGROUND

• Lorraine Hansberry was born on

May 19, 1930, and she was the

youngest of four children.

• She enjoyed a comfortable middle

class existence.

• She lived in South Side Chicago and grew

up knowing some of the greatest African

Americans of her time, like

• Langston Hughes

• Duke Ellington

• Joe Lewis

• W.E.B. Du Bois (her mentor)

• Hansberry also had an early fascination with

Africa. She later spent a year studying there

Du Bois

TURNING POINTS

1938

• Hansberry’s father, Carl,

challenged the segregated housing

pattern in Chicago when he

purchased a house in an all-white

neighborhood.

1940

• The family was threatened by a white

mob and forced to leave by a court

order.

• Carl Hansberry took the case to the

Supreme Court where he won a

favorable judgment (Hansberry vs Lee).

BROADWAY

• After successful runs in Philadelphia, Chicago,

and New York, A Raisin in the Sun opened on

Broadway on March 11, 1959, and critics raved.

• first run had 538 performances.

• Hansberry’s play crossed social lines with powerful

grace, appealing to critics, activists, artists and

theatergoers. It shed more light on the civil rights

movement.

AFTER

• The play won the New York Drama Critics Award that year, a

first for any African American.

• In 1965, Lorraine Hansberry died an early death from

pancreatic cancer at age 35.

EARLY DEATH

• In 1965, Lorraine

Hansberry died

an early death

from pancreatic

cancer.

MODERN CHICAGO

1950S CHICAGO: BLACK BELT

• Economic Status Zoning

• Chicago's South Side "black belt"

contained zones related to

economic status

• Northernmost Oldest Section

-Poorest Blacks

• Southernmost Section

-Elites Resided

• April 1941

GREAT NORTHERN MIGRATION

• Many African Americans move to northern

cities from South.

• Chicago grew the most.

• Between 1940 and 1950

• 80% African American population growth

• .1% White population growth

DAILY LIFE

• run-down neighborhoods

• all-black public housing projects.

• units overcrowded –30 blocks of black-only

housing

• shared bathroom facilities between multiple

families.

• De facto segregated housing

JOB DISCRIMINATION

• Fair Wages

• Promotions

• Advancements

Themes present in ARITSCultural Pride and Identity

“All anyone seems to know about when it

comes to Africa is Tarzan.”

Themes present in ARITS

Family Pride

“There is always something left to

love. And if you ain’t learned that,

you ain’t learned nothing.”

Themes present in ARITSRoles of Men and Women

“A man needs a woman to back

him up . . . “

Themes present in ARITSImportance of Money:

“You get your mind off money and

eat your breakfast.”

Themes present in ARITS

Dreams

“Seems like God don't see fit to give the

black man nothing but dreams - but He did

give us children to make them dreams seem

worthwhile.”