A Raisin in the Sun is a 1961 drama film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Roy Glenn, and Louis Gossett Jr, and adapted from the 1959play of the same name by Lorraine Hansberry. It follows an African American family that wants to create a better life away from the city.
The film was released by Columbia Pictures on May 29th, 1961. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The film is based on the screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry.
Langston Hughes wrote the poem, and Lorraine Hansberry was inspired – both by the poem and by her own real-life experience – to write A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. Today, on what would have been her 82nd birthday, and we’re celebrating Hansberry’s groundbreaking work.
One of the central conflicts of A Raisin in the Sun was loosely based on an event from Lorraine Hansberry’s own childhood. In 1938, her family bought a house in a white neighborhood, in violation of a restrictive covenant – which was legal at the time – prohibiting a black buyer from purchasing the house. The fight that ensued, against both the legal system and the hostile neighbors, deeply affected young Hansberry. Twenty years later, she channeled her memories of the struggle into one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.
A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway in 1959, but not without a struggle. The plays almost all-black cast made it a risky investment in pre-Civil Rights America, and it took more than a year for producers to raise enough money to begin. Even as the curtain rose on opening night, Hansberry was pessimistic, expecting bad reviews. But her powerful writing shone through, and the play was named the best play of the year by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, was nominated for four Tony Awards, and became a classic of American theater.
A Raisin in the Sun has lived on for many years beyond the original Broadway production and movie. In 1973, it was back on Broadway, though in a different format – as a Tony Award-winning musical, named Raisin. In 1989, a movie was produced for television, starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle. 2004 saw A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway yet again, with Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad in leading roles, and in 2008 the cast reprised their roles in another made-for-TV movie, earning several Emmy nominations.
Raisin in the Sun 