Lorraine Hansberry

Conflicts of a struggling African-American family who suddenly come into a financial windfall.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN is a groundbreaking drama celebrating the human spirit, featuring an electrifying performance by winner Sidney Poitier. The Younger family, frustrated with living in their crowded Chicago apartment, sees the arrival of a $10,000 insurance check as the answer to their prayers. Matriarch Lena Younger (Claudia McNeil) promptly puts a down payment on a house in an all-white suburban neighborhood. But the family is divided when Lena entrusts the balance of the money to her mercurial son Walter Lee (Poitier), against the wishes of her daughter (Diana Sands) and daughter-in-law (Ruby Dee). It takes the strength and integrity of this African-American family to battle against generations of prejudice to try to achieve their piece of the American Dream.

When a $10,000 life insurance check provides the Younger family a chance to escape the grinding poverty and frustration of life in a crowded Chicago flat, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier) views the money as a way to free him from working as a chauffeur so he can invest in a liquor store. Desperate to get a decent home for the family, Walter's widowed mother, Lena (Claudia McNeil), wants it for a house that Walter Lee's wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), hopes can rescue her children from their dreary environment. And for Lena's daughter, it means her only chance to attend medical school. As Walter Lee's agonizing conflicts tear at the family's roots, Lena demonstrates trust in him by making a small down payment on the house and then giving him the rest of the money on the promise that he'll save some for his sister's education. But when he risks it all on the liquor store, only to have his partner run off with the money, Walter Lee is faced with the ugly job of selling the house to a neighborhood home owners association that is determined to keep African-Americans out. Yet, at the last moment, he rejects their offer and begins moving the family into their new home.