“A Raisin in the Sun”

The enduring acclaim for the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” as well as its film version, has inspired me to relate what happened when I saw the play for the very first time. 

During 1959, this stunning new play about a Black family in Chicago, written by the exciting young playwright Lorraine Hansberry, premiered at an upscale downtown Chicago theater, the Blackstone Theatre.  Although histories of the play often state that it had its premiere on Broadway in New York City, it actually appeared earlier in Chicago.

The sometimes-caustic theater critic for the Chicago Tribune, Claudia Cassidy, wrote an enthusiastic review of it on February 11, 1959, noting that it was “a remarkable new play” that was “still in tryout.”

“Raisin” represented an enormous theatrical leap because of its plot– a realistic portrayal of a Black family in Chicago confronted with a crucial decision–and because of the brilliant performances by its actors, including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee.

I was lucky to see “Raisin” during its pre-Broadway stay in Chicago.  As a Chicago public high-school student with limited funds, I saw it as an usher.

Ushering was a fairly casual affair in those days.  Often accompanied by a friend or two, I would simply show up at a theater about an hour before the curtain went up and ask the usher-captain whether she could use another usher.  The answer was invariably “yes,” and I would be assigned to a designated area in the theater where I would check tickets and seat ticket-holders. Ushering enabled me to see a great many plays and musicals at no cost whatsoever, and I ushered as often as my school’s schedule allowed.

I’ve never forgotten the startling incident that occurred during the matinee performance of “Raisin” I viewed as an usher.  In the midst of the performance, for no apparent reason, the actors suddenly stopped speaking.  The reason became clear when the theater manager strode onto the stage.  Bottling his rage, he explained that the actors had been struck by items thrown at the stage by patrons in the theater. 

I was shocked to learn of this extremely disrespectful behavior.  I’d never witnessed a problem of any kind created by audience members.

I concluded (fairly, in my opinion) that the audience must have included a number of boorish high-school students sitting in the balcony that afternoon thanks to “comp” tickets.  Some of them were undoubtedly displaying the bigoted attitude toward Black people that prevailed in their homes.

The Chicago area’s population at that time included large numbers of white people who were biased against Blacks.  Some of these whites felt threatened by any possibility of change in their communities.  Some later openly demonstrated to protest Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s visit to Chicago. 

Here, in an upscale downtown theater, was the ugly and ignorant result of this bias.

Has anything changed since 1959?  For a long time, I thought it had.  During my years as a public interest lawyer and, later, as a law school professor and writer, I worked toward and believed in meaningful progress in the area of civil rights.  I had hoped that this feeling by some white people that they were threatened by Blacks–and eventually by Browns as well—had decreased.

Sadly, our recent history has revealed that this feeling still exists. It’s even been encouraged by certain “leaders’ in the political arena.  Some predict that violence could be the ultimate outcome.

I worry that we’re edging toward a return to the ethos of 1959 and the hostility displayed during the performance of “A Raisin in the Sun” I saw back then.  I fervently hope that this will not, indeed cannot, happen and that most Americans vehemently reject the prospect that it will.