“A Dream Deferred”

1. “A Dream Deferred” April 11, 2012

2. LEADING UP TO THE PLAY “A Raisin in the Sun” How is the information provided connected to A Raisin in the Sun?? Answer in at least one paragraph.

3. Jim Crow • Jim Crow songbook an early depiction of a minstrel-show character named Jim Crow. • In 1890s the expression “Jim Crow” was being used to describe laws and customs aimed at segregating African Americans and others. • These laws were intended to restrict social contact between whites and other groups and to limit the freedom and opportunity of people of color.

4. Advertising Cards of the Jim Crow Era

5. Continued: • Insulting racial stereotypes were common in American society. They reinforced discriminatory customs and laws that oppressed Americans of many racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds. The cigarette holder and early 20th-century advertising cards depict common stereotypes of African Americans, Chinese Americans, Jews, and Irish Americans. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/separate-but-equal.html

6. Fighting against Jim Crow • Plessy v. Ferguson In 1890 a new Louisiana law required railroads to provide “equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored, races.” Outraged, the black community in New Orleans decided to test the rule. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy agreed to be arrested for refusing to move from a seat reserved for whites. Judge John H. Ferguson upheld the law, and the case of Plessy v. Ferguson slowly moved up to the Supreme Court. The Out Come: On May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, with only one dissenting vote, ruled that segregation in America was constitutional.(Courtesy of National Archives, Washington, D.C.)

7. Jim Crow Laws • “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.” —Birmingham, Alabama, 1930 • “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.”—Nebraska, 1911 • “Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”—Missouri, 1929 • “All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.”—Tennessee, 1891

8. Jim Crow Laws Enacted

9. The Setting of: “A Raisin in the Sun” • Between 1945 and 1959 • The South Side of Chicago • Time and Place Written: 1950s New York

10. Placing the Play in History 1954 In the "doll test," children were given a black doll and a white doll and asked which one they preferred. Most black children preferred the white doll, to which they also attributed the most positive characteristics. During court trials relating to segregated schools, the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund enlistedKenneth Clark's services as an expert witness on the detrimental effects of racial exclusion and discrimination.

11. The Connection: • Through out history many people of a different race and nationality other than the Caucasian American have had their dreams challenged and deferred. • The successful integration of schools was not the end of the fight for equality. The fight continued, because dreams were still being stifled by the majority in power. So, as we start reading “A Raisin in the Sun” keep in mind the time Period in which it was created.