99 Fun Facts About A Raisin in the Sun

Why does Mama pick a house in an all-white neighborhood over a Black one in A Raisin in the Sun?

It was much cheaper, a practical choice rather than a political one, and the white neighborhood's Improvement Association still sends a man round to buy the family out. Walter refuses the offer in the final scene.

What sum does the life-insurance check bring the Younger family after Big Walter's death in A Raisin in the Sun?

$10,000 is the payout on Big Walter's life, and every Younger has a plan for it: Mama a house, Walter a liquor store, Beneatha her tuition. Only the house survives the play.

What job does Walter Lee Younger hold in A Raisin in the Sun while he dreams of buying into a liquor store?

Limousine driver is the job Walter is barely living on, which is why a share in a liquor store with two street-smart acquaintances looks like salvation. Mama's religious objection to alcohol stands in the way.

What does Beneatha Younger plan to become in A Raisin in the Sun, the ambition Mama earmarks insurance money for?

A doctor is what Beneatha means to be, and Asagai's marriage proposal comes with an invitation to practise medicine in his homeland. Her tuition vanishes when Walter's deal collapses.

Which partner in Walter's liquor-store deal in A Raisin in the Sun vanishes with the cash, leaving Bobo to tell him?

Willy Harris skips town with the whole stake, and Beneatha's tuition goes with it because Walter never banked the share Mama told him to. Walter then nearly takes the buyout.

Which rich suitor of Beneatha's in A Raisin in the Sun embodies the 'fully assimilated black man' and mocks Walter?

George Murchison is the rich, educated boyfriend who denies his African heritage, and Beneatha finds his smarter-than-thou act disgusting. Asagai, the rival, teaches her that heritage instead.

Joseph Asagai in A Raisin in the Sun invites Beneatha to move with him to which country, alongside a marriage proposal?

Nigeria is Asagai's home, and the Yoruba student calls Beneatha's straightened hair 'mutilation' while teaching her about her African heritage. She agrees to consider going.

Who played Walter Lee Younger in the original Broadway cast of A Raisin in the Sun and in the 1961 film?

Sidney Poitier jumped into the audience on opening night and pulled Hansberry onto the stage when the crowd cried out for the author. He had sent the script to its director a year earlier.

Who directed the 1959 Broadway premiere of A Raisin in the Sun, the first Black director of a Broadway play?

Lloyd Richards later ran the Yale School of Drama for twelve years and brought August Wilson to Broadway with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 1984. He and Hansberry rewrote the script weekly through 1958.

Which singer co-wrote 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' in memory of her friend Lorraine Hansberry?

Nina Simone introduced the song to 50,000 people at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and Hansberry had been godmother to Simone's daughter Lisa. The title came from a 1964 Hansberry speech.

In which all-white Chicago neighborhood does Mama put a down payment on a house in A Raisin in the Sun?

Clybourne Park's Improvement Association sends Karl Lindner round with an offer to buy the Youngers out, which the family rejects twice over. Walter finally turns the money down himself.

Which nosy neighbor, cut from A Raisin in the Sun's Broadway staging, jokes the Youngers will be bombed within a month?

Mrs. Johnson's scene stays in print because, as the published introduction says, it pulls the play away from a seemingly happy ending toward the violence Hansberry's own family met. The 2016 BBC radio version restored her.

Handing Walter the insurance money in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama tells him to become what?

Head of the family is the role Mama gives him along with $6,500, asking only that he bank $3,000 for his sister's schooling. He hands the lot to a partner, who disappears with it.

In which part of Chicago do the five Youngers share a run-down apartment in A Raisin in the Sun?

South Side Chicago was Hansberry's own ground: her father bought a house in one of its white subdivisions, and the neighbors' lawsuit to force the family out went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Who originated Ruth Younger on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun and repeated the role in the 1961 film?

Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film, while its two leads had to settle for Golden Globe nominations. She had started out with the American Negro Theatre.

Who created Lena Younger on Broadway and on film in A Raisin in the Sun, earning Tony and BAFTA nominations?

Claudia McNeil nearly lost the part before opening: a would-be backer demanded Ethel Waters replace her, and producer Philip Rose walked away from his money. McNeil later said she no longer acted the role, she lived it.

Which actress played Beneatha in both the 1959 Broadway cast and the 1961 film of A Raisin in the Sun?

Diana Sands went on to a Tony nomination opposite Alan Alda in The Owl and the Pussycat in 1964, and had been a high-school classmate of Diahann Carroll. She was twice nominated for an Emmy as well.

Which actor turned down the New York Knicks to join the 1959 Broadway cast of A Raisin in the Sun?

Louis Gossett Jr. made his film debut in the 1961 adaptation, two decades before his Oscar as the drill instructor in An Officer and a Gentleman. Broadway had already seen him in Take a Giant Step.

Which former husband of Hansberry co-wrote the book of Raisin, the 1973 musical version of A Raisin in the Sun?

Robert Nemiroff's share of the pop hit 'Cindy, Oh Cindy' had let Hansberry quit her day jobs to write full-time, and as her executor he completed Les Blancs and won a Tony for producing Raisin.

Which hip-hop mogul played Walter Lee in the 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun and its 2008 TV film?

Sean Combs was in what The Hollywood Reporter called his first major movie role, and its critic judged that he 'holds his own' beside two co-stars who had won Tonys in the Broadway revival.

Whose Lena in A Raisin in the Sun won the first Best Actress in a Play Tony for a Black actress?

Phylicia Rashad won for the 2004 Broadway revival, three decades after her younger sister Debbie Allen played Beneatha in the musical Raisin. Rashad reprised Lena in the 2008 TV film.

Who directed both the 2004 and 2014 Broadway revivals of A Raisin in the Sun, winning the 2014 Tony for direction?

Kenny Leon's 2014 staging took the Tony for Best Revival of a Play, and he also directed the 2008 television film, which premiered at Sundance. His 2004 cast reprised their roles in it.

Which British actress won a Tony for her Broadway debut as Ruth in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun?

Sophie Okonedo beat her own co-star Anika Noni Rose, nominated in the same category for Beneatha, to the Featured Actress award. She returned to Broadway in The Crucible in 2016.

Which A Raisin in the Sun actor played Karl Lindner on Broadway, in the 1961 film and in the 1989 TV version?

John Fiedler played the play's sole white role three times across thirty years, and Walt Disney cast him as Piglet after hearing his voice on television. He was Juror No. 2 in 12 Angry Men too.

Which actor, aged 12, played the Youngers' son Travis in the original 1959 Broadway cast of A Raisin in the Sun?

Glynn Turman went on to Cooley High in 1975 and Gremlins in 1984, then directed episodes of A Different World and The Wayans Bros. Each of the other three names played Travis in a later version.

Who directed the 1961 film of A Raisin in the Sun, taking a special Gary Cooper Award at Cannes for it?

Daniel Petrie shot the film from Hansberry's own screenplay with the Broadway cast almost intact, and the Golden Globes nominated both of his leads.

In 2005 the 1961 film of A Raisin in the Sun was chosen for preservation in which American archive?

National Film Registry status, conferred by the Library of Congress, went to a film that moved the play's Broadway company to the screen almost intact, working from Hansberry's own adaptation.

At which Broadway house did A Raisin in the Sun premiere in March 1959, before moving to the Belasco that October?

Ethel Barrymore Theatre was also where the 2014 revival played, returning the Youngers to the stage of the premiere 55 years on. The original run closed in June 1960.

Which play, later an Oscar-winning film, beat A Raisin in the Sun to the 1960 Tony Award for Best Play?

The Miracle Worker took Best Play and Best Direction, leaving Raisin winless from four nominations, though the New York Drama Critics' Circle had already named Hansberry's drama the best play of 1959.

Who played Walter Lee opposite Esther Rolle's Lena in the 1989 PBS American Playhouse film of A Raisin in the Sun?

Danny Glover had already played the part on tour for the Roundabout Theatre's 25th-anniversary staging, which the PBS version was built on. Bill Duke directed it.

Which network broadcast the 2008 TV film of A Raisin in the Sun after its Sundance Film Festival debut?

ABC's broadcast reunited the leads and director of the 2004 Broadway revival, and its leading man doubled as one of the film's executive producers.

Which actor narrates the 2008 TV film of A Raisin in the Sun, alongside John Stamos as Karl Lindner?

Morgan Freeman's voice delivers the opening monologue of a film that was made for television yet debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, a month before its broadcast.

Carl Hansberry, Lorraine's father, was planning to move the family to which country when he died there in 1946?

Mexico drew Carl Hansberry after a failed 1940 run for Congress left him despairing of American racism, and Lorraine later spent a summer studying painting in Guadalajara.

Hansberry joined the staff of Freedom, a 1950s Black newspaper founded by which singer and activist?

Paul Robeson gave a eulogy at Hansberry's 1965 funeral, and in 1952 she travelled to a peace conference in Uruguay in his place after the State Department refused him travel papers.

Where did Hansberry integrate a dormitory and turn to Communist Party activism before leaving for New York in 1950?

University of Wisconsin classmate Bob Teague remembered her as the only girl he knew who could whip together a fresh picket sign at a moment's notice for any cause. She also worked on Henry Wallace's 1948 campaign.

Which illness killed Lorraine Hansberry in January 1965, when the Raisin in the Sun playwright was only 34?

Pancreatic cancer was diagnosed in 1963, and James Baldwin later suspected that what she had seen of America 'contributed to the strain which killed her'.

Hansberry's second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, is set in which New York neighborhood where she lived?

Greenwich Village was where she moved with her new husband after their 1953 wedding. When the play struggled at the box office, fellow artists campaigned and appealed for funds to keep it running.

Which attorney general did Hansberry meet at a 1963 civil-rights session that James Baldwin had arranged?

Robert F. Kennedy met Hansberry, Baldwin and CORE's Jerome Smith on May 24, 1963; a month later she chaired a rally whose funds helped buy the station wagon three murdered civil-rights workers were driving.

Whose Pulitzer-winning 2010 play shows the white couple selling the Youngers their house, then jumps ahead 50 years?

Bruce Norris's play won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony for Best Play; its first act has Karl Lindner begging the sellers to back out, and its second returns to the house in 2009.

Which playwright's 2013 sequel follows Beneatha abroad with Asagai and on to a deanship at a California university?

Kwame Kwei-Armah wrote Beneatha's Place for Baltimore's Center Stage, which ran it in repertory with another Raisin-inspired play under the banner 'The Raisin Cycle'.

At which London theatre did A Raisin in the Sun open in August 1959, five months after its Broadway debut?

Adelphi Theatre's run had the same director and producers as Broadway, joined by British impresario Jack Hylton, and Juanita Moore played Lena.

Which Seán O'Casey play did Hansberry take as her model when revising A Raisin in the Sun?

Juno and the Paycock had first stirred her at a student performance, and she called it her 'point of departure' as she rebuilt the play week by week on her director's notes. The original manuscript was later lost.

Who won the 1974 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical playing Lena Younger in the musical Raisin?

Virginia Capers took one of the two Tonys Raisin won from nine nominations, the other being Best Musical. She had reached Broadway in 1957 by taking over a role in the musical Jamaica.

Which future Good Times star played Travis in the 1973 musical Raisin, winning a Theatre World Award for it?

Ralph Carter left Raisin to become Michael Evans, the youngest child of Florida and James Evans on Good Times from 1974 to 1979. He had been on Broadway since the age of nine.

Which actor took over as Walter Lee during A Raisin in the Sun's original 530-performance Broadway run?

Ossie Davis replaced the original star after 198 performances, and two years later he was back on Broadway in Purlie Victorious, a comedy he wrote himself.

Which magazine sent David Attie to photograph Hansberry in her Bleecker Street apartment in April 1959?

Vogue's shoot took place in the apartment where she had written the play, and biographer Imani Perry says the images caught 'her intellectual confidence, armour, and remarkable beauty'.

Which Chicago landmark became the permanent home in 2024 of a Hansberry statue ringed by five bronze chairs?

Navy Pier unveiled Alison Saar's 'To Sit A While' with an outdoor screening of the 1961 film, after the statue debuted in Times Square in 2022 and toured US cities.

A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from a line in 'Harlem', a poem by which writer?

Langston Hughes asked whether a dream deferred dries up 'like a raisin in the sun', and Hansberry printed his poem at the front of her play. He had been a guest in her childhood home.

Which studio released the 1961 film of A Raisin in the Sun, shot from a screenplay Hansberry wrote herself?

Columbia Pictures put the film out on May 29, 1961, in black and white, with a score by Laurence Rosenthal and Hansberry's own screenplay.

Which Harlem Renaissance poet wrote the 1951 poem whose third line gave A Raisin in the Sun its title?

Langston Hughes called the poem Harlem, and it asks what becomes of a dream that is put off. He had been a guest in the Hansberry family home when Lorraine was a child.

What does Mama tend at the apartment's tiny window in A Raisin in the Sun and take with her at the end?

A houseplant, scraggly from too little light, stands for Mama's stubborn care of a family that has also had to grow in poor conditions. She makes sure it leaves the apartment with her.

Which two-time Oscar winner played Walter Lee Younger in the 2014 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun?

Denzel Washington took the part at 59, though Walter Lee is written as a man of 35. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

What does Karl Lindner's neighborhood association offer the Youngers before their move in A Raisin in the Sun?

To buy their house back, at a profit to the family, is the polite offer Lindner brings so that no Black household joins his all-white area. The Youngers show him the door.

What does Ruth Younger's fainting spell at the end of the first scene of A Raisin in the Sun foreshadow?

She is pregnant, with a second child the crowded household can barely afford, and she quietly looks into ending it. Mama is the one who breaks the news to Walter.

How does Mama respond in A Raisin in the Sun when Beneatha announces that God is only an idea?

She slaps her, then makes her daughter say aloud that the household remains a believing one. It is the play's sharpest clash between the two generations of Younger women.

What do Travis and his friends chase and kill in the street outside the Youngers' building in A Raisin in the Sun?

A rat is the boys' quarry, and Travis bursts in breathless to describe the kill. The scene shows the slum conditions the family is desperate to leave behind.

What gift do Walter, Ruth and Beneatha give Mama for her new home in A Raisin in the Sun?

Gardening tools are the grown-ups' gift, for the yard Mama has always wanted, and Travis adds an elaborate hat of his own. Minutes later a visitor brings word that the money is gone.

In A Raisin in the Sun's climax, what does Walter Lee tell Karl Lindner as Travis looks on?

They are moving in, Walter declares, speaking of his father's labor and of Travis as the family's sixth generation in America. Minutes earlier he had meant to take the payout.

Which room do the Youngers of A Raisin in the Sun have to share with other tenants on their floor?

The bathroom sits out in the hall, so the play opens with a morning race to reach it before the neighbors do. That daily scramble shows how cramped the family's life is.

Where does young Travis Younger sleep each night in the family's crowded apartment in A Raisin in the Sun?

On the living-room sofa is the only space left for the boy, in a room that also serves as the family's dining area by day.

After Asagai teases her about straightening it, what does Beneatha do with her hair in A Raisin in the Sun?

She wears it natural, cut short and unstraightened, to the dismay of her wealthy date. The scene was dropped from the original 1959 staging.

How is Beneatha, the college student of A Raisin in the Sun, related to Walter Lee Younger?

His sister is the younger child of Mama and Big Walter, and her tuition is the rival claim on the insurance money he wants for a business.

Which gift from Joseph Asagai does Beneatha model for him, then dance in, in A Raisin in the Sun?

Traditional robes from his homeland arrive with a stack of records, and Beneatha later puts both to use in a folk dance. Her other suitor tells her to change before their date.

Which play, later an Oscar-winning Anne Bancroft film, beat A Raisin in the Sun to the 1960 Tony Award for Best Play?

The Miracle Worker, William Gibson's drama about Helen Keller and her teacher, took the prize, and Anne Bancroft won Best Actress for it the same night.

What job does Ruth Younger hold in A Raisin in the Sun, the same line of work as Mama?

Domestic servant is Ruth's job, cleaning and cooking in white households, just as her husband serves a white employer. Hansberry ties both jobs to the limits race placed on work.

Along with the rest of the insurance money, which role does Mama hand to Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun?

Head of the household is the standing Mama gives her son after seeing how her refusal had crushed him. The trust lifts his mood overnight, until his partner disappears.

In A Raisin in the Sun, where do Walter and Ruth go on their first evening out in years?

The movies, where the couple even hold hands, mark the brief happy stretch after Mama hands Walter the money. Ruth tells Beneatha about it while they pack for the move.

What nickname in his own language does Joseph Asagai give Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun?

Alaiyo, he explains, describes someone who hungers for more than food alone. The 1973 musical version of the play gave the name a song of its own.

Which instrument has Beneatha just begun lessons on, the newest of her costly hobbies, in A Raisin in the Sun?

Guitar lessons follow horseback riding and photography on the list of short-lived pastimes that Mama and Ruth tease her about.

Joseph Asagai, Beneatha's suitor in A Raisin in the Sun, belongs to which West African people?

Yoruba is Asagai's people and his language. Swept up in Beneatha's dance, a tipsy Walter climbs onto the table and plays the part of a great tribal chief.

Which figure from Greek myth does Beneatha's wealthy suitor name to mock Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun?

Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods, is the suitor's parting jab at Walter's grand schemes. The insult sails past Walter and Ruth, who have no idea who that is.

Which 1959 prize made Lorraine Hansberry its youngest American winner and first Black one?

The Drama Critics' Circle Award went to her play in a season with new work by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill on Broadway. She was only the fifth woman to win it.

What working title, also drawn from a line of verse, did Hansberry first give A Raisin in the Sun?

The Crystal Stair was the first name on her drafts, a phrase from a poem in which a mother urges her son to keep climbing. The final title came from the same poet.

Which future Do the Right Thing actor took over as Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun's first Broadway run?

Ossie Davis stepped into the lead when its first star left the cast. Two years later he was back on Broadway in Purlie Victorious, a comedy he wrote himself.

Which future Hogan's Heroes regular played Joseph Asagai in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and in the 1961 film?

Ivan Dixon went from Hansberry's idealistic African student to Sergeant Kinchloe, the radio expert of Stalag 13. He later directed the thriller The Spook Who Sat by the Door.

Carl Hansberry, whose court fight over a home shaped A Raisin in the Sun, made his living in which business?

Real estate made the playwright's father prosperous, so she grew up middle class, far from the Youngers' poverty. Her mother was a schoolteacher.

What has Ruth Younger bought for the new house and proudly shown Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun?

Curtains are Ruth's purchase for the house, shown off as the two women pack. The carefree mood ends within the hour, when a visitor from the new neighborhood knocks.

What does Karl Lindner leave on the Youngers' table after they first refuse him in A Raisin in the Sun?

His business card stays behind in case the family reconsiders. After the money vanishes, a desperate Walter phones Lindner to say they are ready to deal.

Which pests is Beneatha spraying for on the Saturday the insurance check arrives in A Raisin in the Sun?

Cockroaches are the target of the weekly cleaning, with Mama scrubbing the kitchen while her daughter sprays. The chore shows how hard the family works to keep a worn-out flat decent.

Which sound opens A Raisin in the Sun, before Ruth Younger rouses her sleeping son on a Friday morning?

An alarm clock rings and Ruth is the first one up, calling again and again before she finally shakes Travis out of bed.

Which after-school job does Travis Younger offer to take in A Raisin in the Sun, only for Ruth to refuse?

Carrying groceries would earn him the fifty cents his school has asked for, but the weather is turning cold and Ruth worries for his health.

Which NAACP co-founder, by then in his eighties, worked alongside Lorraine Hansberry at a New York newspaper?

W. E. B. Du Bois was among the Pan-African thinkers on the paper's staff, and Africa's decolonization became a running theme of her own writing.

In which Connecticut city did A Raisin in the Sun play its first performances before reaching Broadway in 1959?

New Haven saw the play first, after backers had hesitated for months over a drama with a nearly all-Black cast. Good notices on the road carried it to New York.

Which future Emmy winner for Scandal earned a Tony nomination as Walter Lee in the 1973 musical Raisin?

Joe Morton sang the part 18 years before playing the scientist Miles Dyson in Terminator 2. On Scandal he was Eli Pope, the heroine's fearsome father.

In A Raisin in the Sun, what does a call from his employer's wife reveal Walter has done for three days?

Skipped work is the news, and Walter admits he spent the days driving and walking aimlessly around the city. His despair is what moves Mama to hand him the money.

After proudly giving Travis a dollar for school, what must Walter Lee ask Ruth for in A Raisin in the Sun?

Carfare to reach his job is what he needs, having emptied his pockets to show his son that the family is not as poor as Ruth says.

Which bar does Walter Lee keep drifting back to for its music during his aimless days in A Raisin in the Sun?

The Green Hat ends each of his truant days, after drives out past the steel mills and up to farm country. He loves the little jazz combo that plays there.

In A Raisin in the Sun, Joseph Asagai has just returned from a summer of studies in which country?

Canada kept him away all summer, and he arrives at the Youngers' door with gifts on the very morning the insurance check is due.

The poem behind A Raisin in the Sun's title first appeared in which 1951 book-length sequence?

Montage of a Dream Deferred holds 91 short poems meant to be read as one long piece, following a single day in Harlem.

Which Lorraine Hansberry play about an African colony reached Broadway in 1970, pieced together from her drafts?

Les Blancs, her answer to a Jean Genet play she disliked, was left unfinished at her death and completed by her former husband.

Lorraine Hansberry could write full-time thanks to royalties from which 1956 pop hit co-written by her husband?

Cindy, Oh Cindy, a calypso-styled hit for Vince Martin and then for Eddie Fisher, paid the couple's bills while she drafted her first produced play.

Lorraine Hansberry's uncle William Leo pioneered the study of African history at which historically Black college?

Howard University hired him in 1922 and he started its African Civilization section, retiring in 1959, the year his niece's play opened.

Which first-time producer raised the money to bring A Raisin in the Sun to Broadway after investors balked?

Philip Rose, a former singer and record-company executive, was a producing novice when he took on his friend's play. He later produced Purlie and Shenandoah.

In A Raisin in the Sun, which Chicago neighborhood had Mama and Big Walter once planned to move to after a year?

Morgan Park was the plan when the newlyweds rented the apartment for what they thought would be a single year. Decades later Mama is still there, which is why the check matters so much.

Where is Beneatha's wealthy suitor taking her on the evening Walter Lee mocks his white shoes in A Raisin in the Sun?

The theater is the plan, and he orders her to change her outfit before they leave. While he waits, Walter needles him about college men and their clothes.

Karl Lindner of A Raisin in the Sun introduces himself as coming from which blandly named welcoming body?

New Neighbors Orientation Committee is the friendly-sounding name, but its real errand is to keep Black families out. Beneatha grows suspicious before the visitor reaches his point.

Which Dreamgirls star played Beneatha in the 2014 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun?

Anika Noni Rose earned a Tony nomination for the part, a decade after winning one for Caroline, or Change. She is also the voice of Disney's Princess Tiana.

Which Predator actor directed the 1989 American Playhouse film of A Raisin in the Sun?

Bill Duke filmed the play at close to full length, restoring material trimmed in 1959. He went on to direct A Rage in Harlem and Deep Cover.

The Hansberry family's 1940 Supreme Court victory turned on due process under which amendment to the US Constitution?

The Fourteenth Amendment gave the family its day in court: the justices ruled that an earlier lawsuit, to which they were not a party, could not bind them.