A Raisin in the Sun: An introduction to the African-American personalities of the setting and the times

Introduction
You will soon be reading A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, a story of an African-American family living in the south side of Chicago in the late 1950’s. The purpose of this lesson is to acquaint you with the historical, political, social, and/or cultural climate in America in the early 1950’s by researching the life of one of the many prominent African Americans of the time. The 1950s were tumultous times that would change America. With the rise of the civil rights movement, the voices of African Americans who cried out for change swelled. The following list of African Americans represents artists, politicians, civil rights activists, poets, writers, sports figures, and entertainers whose voices were heard and who in some way impacted/influenced America's history.

The following excerpt from the electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago is a brief overview of life in the 1950s for African Americans:

“In the 1950s, the expanding use of the mechanical cotton picker pushed another wave of black agricultural workers out of the South. Between 1940 and 1960, Chicago's black population grew from 278,00 to 813,000.

What awaited this second Great Migration of southern blacks? On the one hand, the South Side of Chicago was the “capital of black America.” It was home to the nation's most powerful black politician, Democratic congressman William L. Dawson; the most prominent black man in America, boxing champion Joe Louis; and the most widely read black newspaper, the Chicago Defender. In the late 1930s the Congress of Industrial Organizations finally succeeded in overcoming racial discord in two of Chicago's major industries, steel and meatpacking, enabling some blacks to move further up the ranks to low-level management positions and contributing to a growing black working class able to count on a stable income. The migrants could spend their hard-earned wages in several shopping districts with well-provisioned department stores, movie theaters, and banks. At night they could go out and hear some of America's best rhythm and blues musicians. The Chicago blues scene dated back to the 1930s, but in 1948 Aristocrat records broke new ground and set the tone for rhythm and blues for the next 10 years with the release of Muddy Waters's “I Can't Be Satisfied.” Throughout the 1950s Aristocrat, which became the famous Chess Records label, pumped out a steady supply of R&B hits with some of the nation's most popular artists, including Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, and Howlin' Wolf.

On the other hand, conditions in Chicago provided these blues artists with much to sing about. Blacks still faced widespread employment discrimination. Stores in the Loop refused to hire African Americans as clerks. Black bus drivers, police officers, and firefighters were limited to positions serving their own community. Construction trades remained closed. Moreover, the second Great Migration made Chicago's already overcrowded slums even more dilapidated, as more and more people tried to fit into converted “kitchenette” and basement apartments in which heating and plumbing were poor, if functioning at all. Street crime in African American communities remained a low priority for Chicago's police, and violence, prostitution, and various other vices soared in black neighborhoods. When Elizabeth Wood, executive director of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), tried to ease the pressure in the overcrowded ghetto by proposing public housing sites in less congested areas elsewhere in the city in 1946, white residents reacted with intense and sustained violence. City politicians forced the CHA to keep the status quo, setting the stage for the development of Chicago's infamous high-rise projects, such as Cabrini-Green and the Robert Taylor Homes.”

Works Cited
Manning, Christopher. “African Americans”. Encyclopedia of Chicago. 2005.

xxxxxChicago Historical Society. 13 March 2008

xxxxx<http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/700024.html>

Task: Research Paper and Works Cited Page

To research and write about an important African American personality from the 1950s that made an impact on or influenced the times, and to provide a Works Cited Page to give credit to your sources.

(legacy: anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor)

Each of your sources must be properly cited according to the handout which will be provided to you in the Media Center.

Topics

Print Resources
Books -- on display in the Media Center

Online Resources
Biography Resource Center

Grading Rubric:
This assignment counts as an essay/test grade - 30% towards mp grade.

Remember your source notes count as 2 separate class work grades.

Cover page
2 pages typed research paper
Works Cited Page
Handwritten notes from 2 sources
Grading Rubric (this page)