Macro View
Korean War
1950–1953
Cold war conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces on Korean Peninsula. North Korean communists invade South Korea (June 25, 1950). President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle (June 27). President Truman removes Gen. Douglas MacArthur as head of U.S. Far East Command (April 11, 1951). Armistice agreement is signed (July 27, 1953).
The war's unpopularity played an important role in the presidential victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had pledged to go to Korea to end the war. Negotiations broke down four different times, but after much difficulty and nuclear threats by Eisenhower, an armistice agreement was signed (July 27, 1953). Casualties in the war were heavy. U.S. losses were placed at over 54,000 dead and 103,000 wounded, while Chinese and Korean casualties were each at least 10 times as high. Korean forces on both sides executed many alleged civilian enemy sympathizers, especially in the early months of the war.
Another draft for the Korean War called up men aged 18 1/2 to 35, but exempted World War II veterans.
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0903597.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0828118.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_drft.html
The Korean War was one of the several wars in the U.S. after World War II. There was also a draft for this war. The threat of going to war and who would then provide for the family was eminent.
Harry S. Truman (January 7, 1953)
President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
We in this Government realized, even before the first successful atomic explosion, that this new force spelled terrible danger for all mankind unless it were brought under international control. We promptly advanced proposals in the United Nations to take this new source of energy out of the arena of national rivalries, to make it impossible to use it as a weapon of war. These proposals, so pregnant with benefit for all humanity, were rebuffed by the rulers of the Soviet Union.
The language of science is universal, the movement of science is always forward into the unknown. We could not assume that the Soviet Union would not develop the same weapon, regardless of all our precautions, nor that there were not other and even more terrible means of destruction lying in the unexplored field of atomic energy.
We had no alternative, then, but to press on, to probe the secrets of atomic power to the uttermost of our capacity, to maintain, if we could, our initial superiority in the atomic field. At the same time, we sought persistently for some avenue, some formula, for reaching an agreement with the Soviet rulers that would place this new form of power under effective restraints--that would guarantee no nation would use it in war. I do not have to recount here the proposals we made, the steps taken in the United Nations, striving at least to open a way to ultimate agreement. I hope and believe that we will continue to make these efforts so long as there is the slightest possibility of progress. All civilized nations are agreed on the urgency of the problem, and have shown their willingness to agree on effective measures of control--all save the Soviet Union and its satellites. But they have rejected every reasonable proposal.
Meanwhile, the progress of scientific experiment has outrun our expectations. Atomic science is in the full tide of development; the unfolding of the innermost secrets of matter is uninterrupted and irresistible. Since Alamogordo we have developed atomic weapons with many times the explosive force of the early models, and we have produced them in substantial quantities. And recently, in the thermonuclear tests at Eniwetok, we have entered another stage in the world-shaking development of atomic energy. From now on, man moves into a new era of destructive power, capable of creating explosions of a new order of magnitude, dwarfing the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We have no reason to think that the stage we have now reached in the release of atomic energy will be the last. Indeed, the speed of our scientific and technical progress over the last seven years shows no signs of abating. We are being hurried forward, in our mastery of the atom, from one discovery to another, toward yet unforeseeable peaks of destructive power.
Inevitably, until we can reach international agreement, this is the path we must follow. And we must realize that no advance we make is unattainable by others, that no advantage in this race can be more than temporary.
...
With that in mind, there is something I would say, to Stalin: You claim belief in Lenin's prophecy that one stage in the development of communist society would be war between your world and ours. But Lenin was a pre-atomic man, who viewed society and history with pre-atomic eyes. Something profound has happened since he wrote. War has changed its shape and its dimension. It cannot now be a "stage" in the development of anything save ruin for your regime and your homeland.
...
Atomic power will be with us all the days of our lives. We cannot legislate it out of existence. We cannot ignore the dangers or the benefits it offers.
I believe that man can harness the forces of the atom to work for the improvement of the lot of human beings everywhere. That is our goal. As a nation, as a people, we must understand this problem, we must handle this new force wisely through our democratic processes. Above all, we must strive, in all earnestness and good faith, to bring it under effective international control. To do this will require much wisdom and patience and firmness. The awe-inspiring responsibility in this field now falls on a new Administration and a new Congress. I will give them my support, as I am sure all our citizens will, in whatever constructive steps they may take to make this newest of man's discoveries a source of good and not of ultimate destruction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953
http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/state-of-the-union/164.html
The hydrogen bomb could have been enough to threaten other countries without the actual commitment to use it. If the country went into another World War, it would greatly effect the economic and family life.
Discovery of the Double Helix
James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.
Meanwhile, in 1951, 23-year-old James Watson, a Chicago-born American, arrived at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Watson had two degrees in zoology: a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a doctorate from the University of Indiana, where he became interested in genetics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953
http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/chemistry-in-history/themes/biomolecules/dna/watson-crick-wilkins-franklin.aspx
This greatly effects the prestige of the University of Chicago, where Beneatha may be studying to become a doctor. Also, this is an important advance in the medical field.
Jonas Salk and Polio Vaccine
The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of the victims children. The "public reaction was to a plague", said historian William O'Neill. "Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned." According to a 2009 PBS documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio." As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the world's most recognized victim of the disease and founded the organization that would fund the development of a vaccine.
In November, 1953, at a conference in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, he said, "I will be personally responsible for the vaccine." He announced that his wife and three sons had been among the first volunteers to be inoculated with his vaccine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
The play is set in a poor, urban area, which could have contained many individuals with polio. It was a dangerous threat and the idea of a vaccine was a much needed hope.
What Things Cost in 1953:
Car: $1,850
Gasoline: 29 cents/gal
House: $17,500
Bread: 16 cents/loaf
Milk: 94 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 281
Average Annual Salary: $4,700
Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour
http://www.tvhistory.tv/1953%20QF.htm
The prices provided really put the cost of living for Americans into perspective. If they have a minimum wage job at 75 cents an hour for 8 hours, 5 days a week, that's $30 a week. If paid weekly for 52 weeks, this only comes to $1,560 a year. This helps bring light to the Youngers' financial situation. It could show why everyone in the family has to work so hard, and why it could be such a problem of Walter Lee's that Beneatha spends her time at school.
Minimum Wage
1938-Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, setting the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour (June 25).
"...the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set minimum wages at $.25 per hour for workers engaged in interstate commerce (with some exceptions); the act also set up industry committees to recommend rates for every industry. In 1950 the minimum wage was raised to $.75 per hour. "
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0903596.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/bus/A0833308.html
Minimum wage is a fairly new concept in the United States. It was not fully implemented right away, so the 25 cents hourly wage wasn't always a guarantee for non-government jobs. In the beginning of the play, Travis asks Ruth for 50 cents for school. The minimum wage was only raised to 75 cents an hour in 1950. Since the play is a within this time or a little earlier, 50 cents is almost an hour's worth of work. Ruth tells Travis, "No," because they really can't afford it; however, then Walter Lee gives it to him in spite of Ruth. This can help define Walter Lee's personally view on money and his relationships. This continues to help define the family and their idea of money with the other references to currency.
A Dream Deferred
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
"Langston Hughes spoke for most of the writers and artists when he wrote in his essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) that black art intend to express themselves freely, no matter what the black public or white public thought."
http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance
This poem inspired the title of the play.
June 8, 1953
The United States Supreme Court rules that Washington, D.C. restaurants could not refuse to serve black patrons.
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/1953/
Progress in Civil Rights affects the nation and the movement towards integration in law.
December 9, 1953
General Electric announces that all Communist employees will be discharged from the company.
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/1953/
Along with ideas of racism and sexism, the threat of being identified as a Communist adds another layer of alienation and discrimination developing/continuing in America.
Micro View
Carl Hansberry, Hansberry v. Lee
When his youngest child was eight, Hansberry bought a house in a neighborhood that was restricted to whites. The family was met with intense hostility by local residents and forced to vacate the home by the local courts. Hansberry challenged the ruling, which led to the landmark Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (1940).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hansberry
The facts of the case dealt with a racially restrictive covenant that barred African Americans from purchasing or leasing land in a Chicago neighborhood. The covenant had been upheld in a prior class action lawsuit, which had included Lee, along with all the other neighborhood landowners, as members of the class. The defense in the present case argued that Hansberry could not contest the covenant because it had already been deemed valid by the courts in the prior lawsuit. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and held that, since it was shown that some of the neighborhood landowners (46%) comprising the class of the prior lawsuit did not support the restrictive covenant, the previous decision that the covenant was valid could not apply to each and every member of that class. In other words, it was erroneous to allow the 54% of neighborhood landowners who had supported the restrictive covenant to represent the interests of the 46% who were against it. Therefore, the Supreme Court held that the restrictive covenant could be contested in court again, even though some of the parties involved may have been included in the prior class of neighborhood landowners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansberry_v._Lee
I find this information vitally important, because it tells exactly what the playwright and her family experienced. Lorraine Hansberry was completely inspired by her own, real life experiences.
Washington Park Subdivision
The Washington Park Subdivision is the name of the historic 3-city block by 8-city block subdivision in the northwest corner of the Woodlawn community area, on the South Side of Chicago in Illinois that stands in the place of the original Washington Park Race Track. It was originally an exclusively white neighborhood that included residential housing, amusement parks, and beer gardens.
During the late 1920s and 1930s, the area became the subject of discriminatory twenty-year covenants, which were determined to be invalid by the United States Supreme Court, when challenged in a seminal case by Carl Hansberry. The case is a vital part of legal studies and considered an important part of a broad class of histories. The play Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry's struggles in this neighborhood.
Between 1900 and 1934, the African American population in Chicago grew from 30,000 to 236,000. In this time, Chicago's demographics changed so that instead of having this population diluted in scattered places, it was concentrated in two large strips of land. The concentration was enforced by violence at first, but restrictive covenants became the preferred way to enforce segregation after a few decades.
Although they were previously rare, racially restrictive covenants among property owners that outlawed the purchase, lease, or occupation of their properties by African Americans became common in Chicago in the 1920s, following the Great Migration. Local businessmen and the University of Chicago became alarmed at the prospect of poorer African Americans moving from the Black Belt due to a combination of racial succession and economic decline. In 1926, the United States Supreme Court upheld racially restrictive covenants in Corrigan v. Buckley (271 U.S. 323 (1926)). In 1927, the Chicago Real Estate Board (CREB) sent representatives throughout the city to promote such covenants, which it viewed as a progressive alternative to violence. The board representatives provided model contracts drafted by the Chicago Plan Commission as part of their efforts. By 1928, the Hyde Park Herald reported that the covenants prevailed throughout the South Side, and 95% of the homes in the subdivision were covenanted. Most African American neighborhoods were bounded by covenanted areas since 85% of Chicago was covenanted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Park_Subdivision
The Washington Park subdivision is not only the setting of the play, but the previous home to the playwright herself. Her father, Carl Hansberry, also had a hand in trying to turn over the racially restrictive covenants of Chicago. This history also shows specific reasons why Mr. Lindner, the Clybourne Park representative, would have been sent to try and pay off the Younger family. 'White Flight' occurred when African Americans would moved into an all-white or mostly white community. The white community would move elsewhere so as not to live with the blacks. This information shows that this struggle was ongoing.
$10,000
What cost $10000 in 1950 would cost $88151.84 in 2009.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2009 and 1950,they would cost you $10000 and $1118.68 respectively.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
Knowing how much money the insurance check is that Mama will recieve is important. It puts the amount into a perspective relevant to the actors, and helps them understand how much this means to this poor family.
Housing in Chicago
The Black Belt of Chicago was the chain of neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago where three-quarters of the city's African American population lived by the mid-20th century. The Black Belt was an area of aging, dilapidated housing that stretched 30 blocks along State Street on the South Side. It was rarely more than seven blocks wide. The South Side black belt expanded in only two directions in the twentieth century - south and east. The South Side's "black belt" also contained zones related to economic status. The poorest blacks lived in the northernmost, oldest section of the black belt, while the elite resided in the southernmost section. In the mid-1900s, blacks began slowly moving up to better positions in the work force. During this time, Chicago was the capital of Black America. Many African Americans who moved to the Black Belt area of Chicago were from the Black Belt in the Southeastern region of the United States. Discrimination played a big role in the lives of blacks. They often struggled to find decent housing.
Immigration to Chicago was another pressure of overcrowding, as primarily lower-class newcomers from rural Europe also sought cheap housing and working class jobs. More and more people tried to fit into converted "kitchenette" and basement apartments. Living conditions in the Black Belt resembled conditions in the West Side ghetto or in the stockyards district. Although there were decent homes in the Negro sections, the core of the Black Belt was a slum. A 1934 census estimated that black households contained 6.8 people on average, whereas white households contained 4.7. Many blacks lived in apartments that lacked plumbing, with only one bathroom for each floor. With the buildings so overcrowded, building inspections and garbage collection were below the minimum mandatory requirements for healthy sanitation. This unhealthiness increased the threat of disease. From 1940-1960, the infant death rate in the Black Belt was 16% higher than the rest of the city.
In 1946, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) tried to ease the pressure in the overcrowded ghettos and proposed to put public housing sites in less congested areas in the city. The white residents did not take to this very well, so city politicians forced the CHA to keep the status quo and develop high rise projects in the Black Belt and on the West Side. Some of these became notorious failures. As industrial restructuring in the 1950s and later led to massive job losses, residents changed from working class families to poor families on welfare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_African_Americans_in_Chicago
The housing situation for the Southside of Chicago is terrible. Situations somewhat like this exist today, but there are different, dynamic layers of issues with this situation of the past. There was a more dominant, accepted racism that the actors and director need to understand to fully commit to the lessons of this play. Why does Mama want the family to move so badly? Why does she want Travis, especially, to know about the move? How would this area effect Ruth keeping the new baby? How does this change Beneatha's attitude about herself? All these questions, and more, are answered by their enviornment.
Congress of Racial Equality: CORE
CORE was founded in Chicago in 1942 by James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, and Bernice Fisher. Bayard Rustin, while not a father of the organization, was, Farmer and Houser later said, "an uncle to CORE" and supported it greatly. The group had evolved out of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, and sought to apply the principles of nonviolence as a tactic against segregation. The group's inspiration was Krishnalal Shridharani's book War Without Violence (1939, Harcourt Brace), which outlined Gandhi's step-by-step procedures for organizing people and mounting a nonviolent campaign. Shridharani, a popular writer and journalist as well as a vibrant and theatrical speaker, had been a protege of Gandhi and had been jailed in the Salt March. Gandhi had, in turn, been influenced by the writings of Henry David Thoreau. At the time of CORE's founding Mohandas Gandhi was still engaged in non-violent resistance against British rule in India; CORE believed that nonviolent civil disobedience could also be used by African-Americans to challenge racial segregation in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Racial_Equality
CORE was created and grown out of Chicago. It has been a major component in the battle for racial equality. I believe that Asagai and Beneatha, or even perhaps more of the Younger family, would have been interested in attending meetings and getting more information.
Trumbull Park Homes Race Riots, 1953-1954
South Deering erupted in violence in 1953 over the issue of racial integration at the neighborhood's lone public housing project, Trumbull Park Homes, located at 105th Street and Yates Avenue. Since 1937, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) had maintained an unstated policy to house only whites at projects that, like Trumbull Park, were located in entirely white neighborhoods. However, the project was “accidentally” integrated on July 30, 1953, because the CHA assumed that Betty Howard, an exceptionally fair-skinned African American, was white. Beginning on August 5 and continuing nightly for weeks thereafter, crowds of whites directed fireworks, rocks, and racial epithets toward Betty and Donald Howard's apartment. Police responded with a show of force but few arrests. South Deering leaders openly pressured Chicago politicians and the CHA to remove the Howards, while progressive forces argued for further integration. In October, after lengthy debate, the CHA's commissioners reluctantly agreed to move in 10 additional black families, triggering a new round of white violence directed at blacks. A massive police presence prevented full-scale rioting, but chronic racial tension and sporadic violence continued through the 1950s.
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2461.html
This shows that there was triumphs in progressive movements with integration; however, not all of Chicago was ready for the change.
University of Chicago
In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the University became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park, which profoundly affected both the neighborhood's architecture and street plan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_chicago#1920s.E2.80.931980s
Beneatha goes to college, and this is close to where she could have attended.
Urban Renewal
In the 1950s and 1960s the University of Chicago, supported by the community under the title "Fight Against Blight"and by community leaders including Hyde Park Herald publisher Bruce Sagan, sponsored of one of the largest urban-renewal plans in the nation. In coordination with the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, the urban renewal plan resulted in the demolition and redevelopment of entire city blocks of decayed housing and other buildings with the goal of creating an "interracial community of high standards."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_Chicago#Urban_Renewal
This helps understand more community changes.
Chicago Music
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.
http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/27.html
Chicago has marked itself as a creative brewing center. Developments in creative outlet and inspiration.
Sounds & Images
Pearl Bailey
http://mylittleboudoir.com/2010/03/16/mademoiselle-monday-mlle-bailey/
"Pearl Bailey" is used as a stage direction/reference for Ruth. The energy of a person is very important, especially if used as a reference.
Great Garbo
http://www.prlog.org/10193496-moda-entertainment-announces-licensing-deal-with-paper-studio-press-for-client-greta-garbo.html
Clip: Great Garbo-Mata Hari (1931)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5DVB3iIxAw
Greta Garbo is referenced when George tells Beneatha to "drop the Garbo routine."
Harry Belafonte
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20208037_8,00.html
Sound: Harry Belafonte-Matilda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RJr8OvMnHE
Harry Belafonte is used as a stage direction/character suggestion for Walter Lee when he comes back from a night out and Beneatha is playing Nigerian music.
Paul Robeson [as Othello]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/missbigelow/detail?blogid=177&entry_id=55225
Sound: Paul Robeson-Ol' Man River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s
Paul Robeson is also used as a stage direction/character suggestion for Walter Lee when he comes back from a night out and Beneatha is playing Nigerian music.
Shaka Zulu
http://laye97diedhiou.vip-blog.com/express.php?pseudo=laye97diedhiou
Video: Shaka Zulu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_hS_DKab8I
"Descedant of chaka" is a used as a stage direction/character for Walter Lee when he comes back from a night out and Beneatha is playing Nigerian music. 'Chaka' is also 'Shaka.'
Video: Yoruba Bata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCv03EolhMQ
Asagai is Nigerian, specifically of the Yoruban tribe.
Statement
The title of the play is a line from a poem by Langston Hughes called ‘Harlem’ or ‘Dream Deferred.’ Hughes wrote that artists of, “…black art intend to express themselves freely, no matter what the black public or white public thought."
A Raisin in the Sun, set in 1953, portrays the real life of an African American family trying to make a living in the Southside of Chicago. The 50s were a limbo period for Civil Rights. There were enough people who supported change to create disturbances, but also many more who opposed change.
Chicago was a particular hot spot for racial tension. The Great Migration had created an influx of African Americans in a series of neighborhoods of Chicago, which later became known as the ‘Black Belt.’ Due to residential covenants, legal restrictions as to where African Americans could and could not live, African Americans really had no other place to go. Not only was there segregation between white and black communities, but the ‘Black Belt’ established housing sections based on economic success. The southern most section was inhabited by the elite blacks of the community, whereas the nethermost lived in the oldest, poorest part.
During my research, I discovered that the playwright, Lorraine Hansberry, was in a similar situation as the Youngers, when she was a child. Her father, Carl Hansberry, had bought a home for his family in an all white section of town called Washington Park. When the Hansberry family moved into the home, the white community was hostile and the family was eventually made to vacate the home by local courts. Later, Carl Hansberry challenged the ruling in a case that became a landmark in the Supreme Court, known as Hansberry v. Lee (1940).
The problem was that an earlier court ruling held that a racially restrictive covenant had been agreed upon, which included Lee, and could not be contested. However, since not all landowners of the last case agreed to the covenant (46%), then the other landowners (54%) who did support it could not speak on their behalf as majority. In conclusion, the Supreme Court ruled that the covenant could be contested even if some of the parties were involved in the last case.
Trumball Park Homes was an ‘accidentally’ integrated housing project. A woman applied and was accepted to live in the community, but upon moving in, the neighborhood found out she was a black woman who was light skinned enough to have passed as white. The neighbors rioted every night, throwing things, etcetera at the family’s apartment. After much reluctance the Chicago Housing Authority moved in 10 more black families, which lead to the ignition of more violence towards blacks of the community. The chronic racial tensions and violence continued throughout the 1950s.
CORE: Congress of Racial Equality was founded and grown out of Chicago. The group was applied Gandhi’s idea of non-violence as a device against segregation. It has been a major component in the battle for racial equality.
In conjunction with the fight for Civil Rights, the nation was in transition from World War II to the Cold War and several conflicts with Communists. The fear of draft still remained. Developments of the hydrogen bomb fueled the idea of another war.
There were also major scientific advancements such as the discovery of the double helix for DNA by James D. Watson and Francis Crick. This opened up a whole new world for sciences of all kinds. (Watson graduated from the University of Chicago.) Also, the polio vaccine was developed and continued research. In 1952, the nation saw the worst Polio epidemic with the death of 3,145 people and 21, 269 people left with mild paralysis, many of whom were children. The vaccine gave hope to the public and its future.
Minimum Wage is completely taken for granted. Established in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards act set up a minimum wage for interstate commerce workers. The first raise was from 25 cents to 50 cents in 1950.
The $10,000 insurance the Youngers will receive translates to $88,151.84 today. What seems obtainable in less than a year to us today is put into a stark perspective. If someone were to work 40 hours a week at 50 cents an hour for 52 weeks, the yearly income would be $1,040. So, it would take 9 to 10 years to make the whole insurance amount. As a minimum estimate, it is still unsettling.
Overall, the 1950s are a tumultuous period of history which greatly affected the entire world. A Raisin in the Sun is an intimate glimpse into a real life situation of African American people who want what everyone desires: stability, acceptance, a better life.
