The late 1950s were filled with racial discrimination. There were still live sections as well as public mixed race and white signs. Blacks and whites were not in favor of change, or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells the story of a black family struggling to be accepted by the middle class in Chicago. The family of five, a child and four adults, lives in a small apartment located in a very poor neighborhood. Dreams of owning a business and having money to achieve their goals are two key elements played throughout the play. Walter Younger is determined to start his own business and he will do anything to make this dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision about money that could have helped the family and not just himself, if he had thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to settle down for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers understand the history of racial discrimination and how racial discrimination had an effect on people in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as its effect on the characters in the piece. Racial discrimination is defined as the act of treating one person/group differently from another based solely on their racial origin. The play as its self-receives racial discrimination, because its author made history, and it is because of what she did that we talked about it. One of the historical significance of A Raisin in the Sun is that Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as the best play of the year. “A Raisin in the Sun brought African Americans to the theater and on stage. " The word is that "the reason was that...... middle of paper...... they had planned for the years 1946 (p. 1536). Then and now, there are so many different opinions, regardless of race. George and Beneatha talk and George says. “Let's be real, baby, your legacy is nothing but a bunch of ragged spirituals and a few grass shacks!” and Beneatha will say GRASS HUTS!... See there... there you are, in your splendid ignorance, talking about the people who were the first to smelt iron on the face of the earth! As readers, we can see that Hansberry contrasts George's view of African identity with Beneatha's. The conversation can also show that there are many different perspectives on this issue within the Black community. By giving us these kinds of complex perspectives, Hansberry makes the play truly universal. Works Cited Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: WW Norton &, 2012. Print.