Dr. Blaque / ENG 10 810 / Spring 2019
Module V Activity Sheet / Drama
Module Five Reading List (Fiction)
The location of each reading/video listed below can be found in parenthesis marks after each
individual listing. Proceed in the order in which the reading/video/activity appears ONLY, making
sure you complete the entire activity sheet before completing the writing assignments
1. “A Crisis in Levittown” (D2L Video)
2. “Hansberry v. Lee Summary” (D2L Handout)
3. “Shelley v. Kraemer Summary” (D2L Handout)
4. Gilmore: “Not in My Backyard” (D2L Handout)
5. Elements of Drama” (D2L handout)
6. “Cultural and Historical Contexts: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun” pp. 1496-1506 (Norton)
7. Hansberry: “Authors on Their Work” pp. 1570-1573 (Norton)
8. Hansberry: “A Raisin in the Sun” pp. 1506-1570 (Norton)
Assignments
1. KPL4-5 due to assignment box titled KPL4-5 on April 21, 2019 @ 11:30 pm
Blaque / ENG 10 810 / Spring 2019 / Module V: Drama
1
Blaque / ENG 10 810 / Spring 2019 / Module VI: RP#5
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
Reading Required for this assignment:
1. Read, in its entirety, Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun.
2. Read the Hansberry v. Lee court case.
3. Watch Levittown in Crisis (1957)
4. Read Gilmore’s article, “Not in My Backyard.”
Writing/Answering the Questions
1. Questions 1-5 must be answered in 250-300 words; while questions 6-10 must be answered
in 150-200 words. Be sure to stay within this range to earn as many points as possible.
2. Students must parenthetically cite EACH quotation and paraphrase used in their answers.
Note: To not do so will decrease grade received for that specific answer.
3. A Works Cited page is NOT required.
4. Do not use any summarization (re-telling the story) unless it is needed to answer the
question.
Questions
1. Why does Ruth get upset with Walter when he gives Travis the money; and what how is
Ruth’s reaction related to Lena’s concern that Walter is obsessed with money?
2. Identify the gifts that Asagia gives to Beneatha? Then consider those gifts when answering
the following question: What are these gifts and why are they appropriate to Beneatha’s
question for self-identity, yet inappropriate to George’s already defined self-identity?
3. Why does Lena initially believe Walter to be a “disgrace to his father’s memory” and what
does Walter do to change her mind?
4. If there are three words to describe Beneatha, what would they be and explain what she says
or does to support those three individual words.
5. What is Beneatha’s goal in life, and why is Walter’s attitude toward his sister’s goal sexist?
6. Define in your own terms what “Not in My Backyard” means in the 21st century.
7. In your own words, describe why Hansberry v. Lee does not solve the problem of restrictive
covenants.
8. In your own words, describe “white flight.”
9. In your opinion, what was the result of “white flight” and does that result contribute to
racism in America?
10. Describe your neighborhood in terms of race, friendship, and “neighborliness.”
Blaque / ENG 10 810 / Spring 2019 / RP#5 / Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
1
Submission:
1. Note: This RP has no KPL.
2. For me to differentiate who you are and link that to a document, you are required to name
your document as follows: yourlastname_RP5. As you save the document, the extension
will add itself to your document. DO NOT TYPE IN THE EXTENTION or else the
document will not be readable on D2L.
3. Just because D2L allows you to upload any type of document, again, D2L can only read
two types: MSWord (.doc or .docx) and Acrobat Reader (.pdf). Please, stick to the
protocols of D2L.
4. Once uploaded successfully, D2L will give you notification of such. I will not.
5. Upload your work to the assignment box titled “RP5” by April 25, 2019 @ 11:30 pm. Once
the assignment box closes, it will not be reopened.
Blaque / ENG 10 810 / Spring 2019 / RP#5 / Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun
2
U.S. Supreme Court
Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940)
No. 29
Argued October 25, 1940 / Decided November 12, 1940
311 U.S. 32
Hansberry v. Lee case brief summary
311 U.S. 32 (1940)
CASE SYNOPSIS
Petitioner African-Americans and others, sought certiorari review of a judgment from the
Supreme Court of Illinois, which affirmed a decree in equity for respondents that had enjoined a
violation of an agreement of lot-owners, which restricted the sale and use of lots in a particular
area.
CASE FACTS
Respondents brought suit to enjoin a breach of an agreement restricting the use of an area of
land. The agreement stipulated that for a specified period no part of the land should be sold,
leased, or occupied by "any person of the colored race" and that the agreement should not be
effective unless signed by the owners of 95 percent of the frontage. In response to petitioners'
defense that the agreement had never become effective because owners of 95 percent of the
frontage had not signed it, respondents pleaded that that issue was res judicata by the decree in
an earlier suit. Petitioners responded that because they were not parties to that suit or bound by
its decree, denial of their right to litigate would be a denial of their due process rights.
DISCUSSION
The United States Supreme Court held that the decree in the earlier suit was not res judicata
as to petitioners because in seeking to enforce the agreement in the previous case, plaintiffs
were not representing petitioners, whose substantial interest was in resisting performance,
and for a court to ascribe to either plaintiffs or defendants the performance of representing
petitioners would deny petitioners their due process rights.
CONCLUSION
The Court reversed and held that the decree in the previous suit was not res judicata as to
petitioners.
This modest, two-story masonry residence built in St.
Louis, Missouri in 1906 is associated with an African
American family's struggle for justice that had a
profound effect on American society. Because the J. D.
Shelley family decided to fight for the right to live in
the home of their choosing, the United States Supreme
Court addressed the issue of restrictive racial covenants
in housing in the landmark 1948 case of Shelley v.
Kraemer.
In 1930, J. D. Shelley, his wife, and their six children
migrated to St. Louis from Mississippi to escape the
pervasive racial oppression of the South. For a number
of years, they lived with relatives and then in rental
properties. In looking to buy a home, they found that
many buildings in St. Louis were covered by racially
restrictive covenants by which the building owners
House
agreed not to sell to anyone other than a Caucasian. The Shelley
Photograph by Gerald L. Gilleard
Shelleys directly challenged this discriminatory practice
by purchasing such a building at 4600 Labadie Avenue from an owner who agreed not to enforce
the racial covenant. Louis D. Kraemer, owner of another property on Labadie covered by
restrictive covenants, sued in the St. Louis Circuit (State) Court to enforce the restrictive
covenant and prevent the Shelleys from acquiring title to the building. The trial court ruled in the
Shelleys' favor in November of 1945, but when Kraemer appealed, the Missouri Supreme Court,
on December 9, 1946, reversed the trial court's decision and ordered that the racial covenant be
enforced. The Shelleys then appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
Shelley v. Kraemer Case
On May 3, 1948, the United States Supreme Court rendered its landmark decision in Shelley v.
Kraemer, holding, by a vote of 6 to 0 (with three judges not sitting), that racially restrictive
covenants cannot be enforced by courts since this would constitute state action denying due
process of law in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Although the case did not
outlaw covenants (only a state's enforcement of the practice), in Shelley v. Kraemer the Supreme
Court reinforced strongly the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws, which
includes rights to acquire, enjoy, own, and dispose of property. The Shelley case was a
heartening signal for African Americans that positive social change could be achieved through
law and the courts.
While the Shelley’s house is, today, a National Historic Landmark located at 4600 Labadie
Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, it is; however, is not open for public viewing.
Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com)
Not in My Backyard
By: Brian Gilmore
Posted: March 11, 2009 at 6:16 AM
It's been 50 years since 'A Raisin in the Sun' debuted on Broadway. And as we
commemorate the iconic play, a look back at the housing integration case behind the
art.
Fifty years ago today, A Raisin in the Sun debuted, eventually becoming American theater‟s
seminal statement on racism and the human condition. Named after words from a Langston
Hughes poem, the play was made into a critically acclaimed film in 1961 and was later translated
into 35 languages. The play was “a breakthrough for white America” and “a curtain raiser for the
next phase of the civil rights movement,” Hansberry‟s biographer, Michael Anderson, told me in
an e-mail recently.
The play told the story of the Youngers, a black family seeking to escape the crowded slums of
Chicago‟s South Side by buying a home in a white neighborhood. The play tracks their inner
struggles and collective triumphs, which echoed the plight of blacks flooding into Northern cities
like Chicago and Detroit seeking their fair share of America and giving birth to the black middle
class.
But even as the play continues to grow in stature, many Americans are unaware of the
courageous story behind the art. Just like Pablo Picasso was moved to paint his classic muralsized painting “Guernica” after the Nazis savagely bombed the city of Guernica in Spain in 1937,
Lorraine Hansberry penned A Raisin in the Sun because of real events, violent and noble.
The true story that inspired the play occurred in 1937 when Lorraine Hansberry‟s father, the
successful Chicago businessman Carl Hansberry, purchased a house restricted to whites by racial
covenant in Chicago. When the family ignored the 1928 covenant that excluded blacks and
bought a house there, the Hansberrys were thrust, the playwright said later, into a “hellishly
hostile „white neighborhood‟” where “howling mobs surrounded” their home. Hansberry was
nearly killed when a cement slab was hurled through a window.
Conditions were so dangerous that Hansberry‟s mother, Nannie Perry Hansberry, patrolled the
house at night with a “German luger” to protect her four children. Carl Hansberry joined forces
with the NAACP to mount a legal challenge against the restrictive racial covenant, spending a
small fortune in the process.
A white homeowner, Anna M. Lee, complained that the Hansberrys violated the covenant. The
case, known today as Hansberry v. Lee, weaved its way through the judicial system and
eventually landed at the United States Supreme Court for review. Chicago alderman Earl
Dickerson, a Chicago legal legend, along with a litany of outstanding black civil rights lawyers,
represented the Hansberry family. The case is critically important to history for one specific
reason: 14 years earlier, in 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial covenants legal in
Corrigan v. Buckley. The Hansberry case offered a chance to reverse that decision.
In the end, Carl Hansberry‟s persistence and courage paid off. On Nov. 12, 1940, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hansberry, invalidating the racial covenant.
While the decision was decided on technical grounds and took no position on the legality of all
racial covenants, the case proved to be the beginning of the end for the practice. Some other
racially restricted areas in Chicago opened up to black homebuyers. Then, in 1948, the Supreme
Court declared the enforcement of all racial covenants unconstitutional in the landmark U.S.
Supreme Court case, Shelley v. Kraemer.
Sadly, however, according to Lorraine Hansberry, her father‟s battle for justice led to an early
death. Mr. Hansberry died in 1946 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Mexico. He was considering
moving his family there as a result of the legal battle to take the home. In To Be Young, Gifted
and Black, Hansberry described “the emotional turmoil” of the struggle which left him an
“embittered exile in a foreign land…”
The monument of the spirit of Carl Hansberry, his daughter Lorraine and the entire Hansberry
family is A Raisin in the Sun, an enduring piece of art whose back story is especially important
today as black communities face new and often difficult housing issues as neighborhoods
gentrify or deteriorate. And whole generations of black wealth are going up in smoke because of
the subprime mortgage crisis.
Hansberry‟s play is about determination, the human spirit and a willingness to be courageous as
we try to make ourselves at home in a sometimes hostile land.
Brian Gilmore is an attorney and writer in Washington, D.C.
A Raisin in the Sun
Hansberry v. Lee
Lorraine Hansberry
housing discrimination
Culture
Source URL: http://www.theroot.com/views/not-my-backyard
Links:
[1] http://www.theroot.com/users/briangilmore
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun
[3] http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm
[4] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00003L9CK?tag=therootcom20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00003L9C
K&adid=1QC0S53VNEQCYTXHPTE8&
[5] http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansberry_v._Lee
[7] http://www.brownat50.org/brownCases/PreBrownCases/CorriganvBuckley1926.html
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_v._Kraemer
[9] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451159527?tag=therootcom20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0451159527
&adid=1J3PM32JJBRSYFBQ74PR&
[10] http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/hansberry.JPG
[11] http://www.theroot.com/views/boom-bust-repeat
[12] http://www.theroot.com/views/detroit-too-black-fail
[13] http://www.theroot.com/views/old-housing-crisis
Elements of Drama: An Overview
Audience
The fact of a live audience also has an important impact on the way plays are created. The
essential feature of an audience involves the fact that they have, at a single instant, a common
experience; they have assembled for the explicit purpose of seeing a play. Drama not only
plays before a live audience of real people who respond directly and immediately to it, but
drama is also conceived by the author with the expectation of a specific response. However,
while authors calculate for the effect of a community of watchers, rather than for the silent
responses of readers, most plays are read, rather than seen. With that in mind, most plays
written deal with topics that are timely; and therefore, when read or performed years or
decades later, these dramatic projects can be considered as historical dramas.
Dialog
The substance of a play is the dialog, as each word uttered by each character furthers the
business of the play and contributes to the play’s effect as a whole. Therefore, a sense of
decorum must be established by the characters, i.e., what each says is appropriate to the role
and situation of the characters’ respective role in the play. In addition, the exposition of the
play often depends on the dialog of all of the characters. Remember: the exposition
establishes the relationships, tensions, and/or conflicts from which plot developments are
derived later on in the play.
Plot
Keeping in mind the data contained in the “7 Elements of Fiction” handout used earlier in
this course, plots in dramatic plays also include:
1. Open Conflict:
Open conflict plays are based upon a plot in which the hero may or may not succeed
against all the odds that are presented in a suspenseful way.
2. Dramatic Thesis:
The Dramatic Thesis plot consists of omens and foreshadowing of the protagonists’
destiny or doom, which are represented by a series of symbolic incidents and/or
conditions that assume rational consequences.
3. Coincidence:
Coincidental plots are reversals of the protagonist’s fortunes that climax with irony and
confusion about what takes place.
4. Dramatic Irony:
Dramatic Irony plots fulfill the protagonist’s plans of action in an unexpected way that is,
more often than not, in opposition of what the reader/viewer expects.
Stagecraft
The stagecraft of a dramatic play is important for its physical, definite limitations, in that
they suggest, rather than directly depict the settings and actions in the play, i.e., by providing
hints about the plot, the characters, and role of the props in the play. Whether the audience is
live or reading, their ability to recognize the hints of the stage action is needed for a full
understanding of the play, which is why the reading audience should always read the text that
appears directly before the dialogue of the play begins. In this way, the reader can begin to
Blaque / Elements of Drama
1
set the stage of the play in their mind prior to reading play, thereby assuring a better
likelihood for their full understanding of the dialogue about to be read.
Character v. Characterization1
There is an important difference between character and characterization in literature,
including drama and fiction, to which attention must be paid.
1. Character:
The characters in a work of fiction, a work of drama, and even in film (screenplay), are
defined simply as representation of people, places, or things that perform traditional
human functions and activities in the literary work. Yes, “places” and “things” can be
characters in literature, such as the living room couch in Charles Dickens’ Dombey and
Son, or the phrase “the promised land,” in many works of Black Literature, which most
often refers to the city of Chicago during the 1920s-1950s, but can also refer to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century, Atlanta in the 1990s, or Harlem
from 1915-1950.
2. Characterization:
The ways in which a character is presented--description, dialogue, dialect, and action—in
a work of fiction or poem is characterization, which can come in many forms, and is used
to generate an intellectual and/or emotional response from the reading or viewing
audience. There are the generic forms, such as male or female, African American or
Native Indian, young or old, enslaved or free, rich or poor, and the many forms that fall
between each of these binaries. However, characterization is also more specific, and
characters, based upon their individual or group roles in a work of fiction—what they
say, do, think—are depicted into different categories to serve the purpose (theme) of the
fictional work:
a. Protagonist: the central character, but not necessarily a hero or a heroine
b. Antagonist: the opponent or opposing body. An antagonist can be society, the law,
an idea, or an institution. An antagonist can also be nature or a specific natural form,
such as the weather or insects. Of course, an antagonist can be, and often is, a person
in opposition to the protagonist.
1) Antihero/heroine: this character, whether male or female, is the protagonist, but
is also the antithesis of a traditional hero, i.e., does not demonstrate traits of
heroism in a traditional sense. A good example of this type of characterization is
in Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, who is a romantic heel.
c. Persona: this character can be the alter-ego of the author, often appears in the first
person narrative or lyric poetry, and serves the purpose of keeping the author of the
work distinguished from the character(s) in the work, yet they are not necessarily
separated.
d. Round: a character that is three-dimensional, has depth, and is fully developed by the
author, i.e., the character changes over time in the story.
e. Flat: a character that is only developed enough to serve its purpose in the story and
little to nothing else. This character is static, and always remains the same.
Blaque / Elements of Drama
2
f. Foil: a character that is only secondary to the central character(s) of the story, and
such a character’s job is to demonstrate the contrast between him or her and the
central character, likely the protagonist.
Convention
A play’s conventions are traditionally referred to as the specific techniques and actions used
by the playwright or actor in a play, and as chosen by the playwright. In Black Drama,
however, experimentation is all, in that the conventions used by Black playwrights can
follow the conventions of Greek Tragedies, such as Rita Dove’s The Darker Side of Earth or
Silas Jones’ American Medea, or be purely experimental, such as that seen in Amiri Baraka’s
Dutchman, or Ben Caldwell’s All White Caste. In other words, in Black Drama, traditional
conventions may or may not be present, as new conventions are often being created as the
Black Drama is being written.
Genres
It is important to note here that while most dramatic plays can be categorized into genres
similar to those found on this list, sometimes Black Drama is hard to categorize, as the
each play is as complex as the life and experience of the author living in a racialized
society, which is reflected in the lives of the characters Black playwrights create.
Therefore, genres may not always be a key point of discussion when writing about Black
Drama, but rather, the focus is on the socio-historical aspect of the play within the
context of race and class.
1. Tragedy/Comedy: First, the Tragedy/Comedy is not to be confused with the TragiComedy (see below). The Tragedy/Comedy genre is about 2000 years old
benchmarked by Aristotle’s Poetics, written in Greece around 335 B.C. Primarily,
this dramatic genre concerns the human experience as it interacts and conflicts with
superhuman forces, specifically gods and fate. The human protagonists (demigods,
kings, and heroes) almost always, if not each time, lose their fight with the
supernatural antagonist, as their fight to win whatever conflict arises may make the
protagonist appear noble in their efforts, but are far too extreme in magnitude, thereby
either weakening or killing the protagonist. The objective of the Tragedy/Comedy is
for the audience to be completely empathetic and emotionally tied to the protagonist
from the beginning of the play until the protagonist is defeated, at which time the
audience is relieved of the emotions shared with the protagonist.
2. Comedy: While this genre has many subgenres, it is traditionally conceived and
understood as either High or Low comedy.
a. High Comedy, while evoking the audience's "rolling on the floor" laughter, it
also uses dialog associated with polite society, albeit, the dialog is satirical in
style and targets everyday life with humorous criticism.
b. Low Comedy, on the other hand, is dependent upon the physical actions of the
characters in the play, is farcical, and the vulgarity of the jokes are much more
intense than that used in High Comedy.
1) The Farce is an example of Low Comedy, as it also depends upon the
physical actions of the characters, and therefore, any humorous dialog is
supplanted by that because such "slap stick" needs no verbal/written
translation.
Blaque / Elements of Drama
3
3. Comedy of Character: This dramatic genre centers on exaggerated characters, i.e.,
the characteristics of the characters are written in ways that are unrealistic and over
the top. Often, these are plays about domestic relationships, the goings-on within the
household, and therefore, this genre usually adopts the current culture associated with
the writer.
4. Comedy of Situation: This body of dramatic plays are based upon the plots, and
therefore, the situations in which the characters find themselves. Since the age of
television, as screenplays, these are known as "sitcoms." This genre revolves around
a specific comedic circumstance that must be resolved by the characters in the play,
and is often based upon a self-inflicted wounds (complication and conflicts).
5. Satire: This form of dramatic comedy is dependent on current events in society at the
time the play is conceived, and the events to which the drama refers are exaggerated
or altered for the sake of the joke. Often there is specific focus, such as politics, or a
specific entity that is targets, such as a city or school; and impersonations of the
people and places associated with the target are acted out by the characters or
stagecraft.
6. Parody: While this dramatic genre is very close to Satire, it is used to poke fun at
other cultures or art forms, thereby mimicking and exaggerating that which is poked.
7. Melodrama: This dramatic genre cannot be categorized as comedy or tragedy, but
rather an integration of the two in a way unique to each specific melodramatic play.
Nearly ignoring the tradition of cause and effect, Melodramas focus on the
exaggeration of emotion, and are more concerned with the plot and action, which
degrades the value of the characterization of the characters. Here, the use of spectacle
is high, which includes myriad plot twists and special effects, and the good vs. evil
characters need no introduction, as they are obvious.
8. Tragedy: While there are multiple subgenres associate with tragedy, this is a general
reference. Dramatic Tragedy plays are classical Greek dramas that exploit the
reversal of fortune of a royal figure and end with that character's defeat or downfall.
The subgenres of a dramatic Tragedy have to do with what the protagonist knows,
when the protagonist knows it, and whether or not the protagonist is even aware of it.
For example, in Simple Tragedy, the protagonist never realizes what caused her or his
defeat, while in a Complex Tragedy, there is a specific scene when the protagonist
realizes what caused her or his defeat.
9. Tragi-Comedy: First, note that this is different than the Tragedy/Comedy (see
above), as supernatural forces are not present. Rather, the title of the genre explains
its description: a drama in which the action is both serious and funny, i.e., tragedy and
comedy are blended together to tell a story.
Overview of Black Drama
Dramatic plays, whether performed on stage or not, usually reflect the daily dramas of everyday
life. This is particularly true in African American literature. Black Drama not only focuses on
the socio-political lives of African Americans, but also reveals and exams the socio-economic
causes and effects on Blacks’ lives similarly to literary realism. When performed, Black drama
is dependent upon not only the dialogue in the play, but also skill level of the actors and their
Blaque / Elements of Drama
4
ability to bring to life that dialogue, while also using the stage props purposefully. Readers of
dramatic plays, on the other hand, are dependent on their own imaginations to understand not
only the feelings expressed in the characters’ dialogue, but also the timing of the action.
Additionally, it is important to note here that while most dramatic plays can be categorized into
genres similar to those found on this list (see above), sometimes Black Drama is hard to
categorize, as the each play is as complex as the life and experience of the author living in a
racialized society, which is reflected in the lives of the characters Black playwrights create.
Therefore, genres may not always be a key point of discussion when writing about Black Drama,
but rather, the focus is on the socio-historical aspect of the play within the context of race and
class.
1
While this element is presented here as pertaining to drama, it is the same in not only fiction, but also poetry.
Blaque / Elements of Drama
5
Purchase answer to see full
attachment