A Raisin in the Sun @ 50

Walter Lee Dreams Big Dreams

"All I want is to be able to stand in front of my boy like my father never was able to do to me and tell him he'll be somebody in this world besides a servant ad a chauffeur.”

A Groundbreaking Achievement

'Raisin in the Sun' was the first play by a black playwright to enjoy full theatrical release on Broadway. Hansberry, the 28-year-old playwright, used he family stuggles against segregated housing on the South Side of Chicago as the backdrop for a place about aspiration and ambition, family and gender conflicts, racism and discrimination and how America was changing.

Mama and Walter

Mama (Claudia McNeil) instills the idead idea of chasing dreams in here children, but she demaeds that the do it with self-respect. He clashes with Walter all have to do with how a person behaves in the world.

Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry, 28-year-old playwright who won the Drama Critics' Award for her first play "A Raisin in the Sun."  

Sidney, Claudia, and Ruby

March 1959

Sidney, his wife, and Lorraine

Sidney Poitier converses with his wife Juanita Hardy and "A Raisin in the Sun" playwright Lorraine Hansberry at New York City's Ethel Barrymore Theater in March of 1959.

A Raisin in the Sun

The well received Broadway play was adapted into an acclamied flim in 1961, with much the same leading players. Here, Ruby Dee, who played Ruth both on Broadway and in the movie, celebrate the movie in one sparkling moment.

Lorraine Accepts Award

John McClain, former president of the Drama Critics' Circle, presented an annual stage awards to “A Raisin in the Sun” director Lorraine Hansberry on May 4, 1959.

Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee

Sidney Poitier, along with Ruby Dee, acts in a dramatic scene from "A Raisin in the Sun." 

Sidney Poitier and Juanity Hardy

In March 1959, as Raisin in The Sun debuted, Poitier and his real-life wife Juanita Hardy share a quiet moment away from the turmoil that marked the life of his Raisin character, Walter Lee Younger.

Louis Gossett Jr.

Gossett Jr. playing George Murchison in “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Ruby Dee Celebrates

Ruby Dee celebrates at a party in honor of the play “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Ruby Dee, Now

Sidney Poitier, Now

Louis Gossett Jr., Now