--Lorraine Hansberry, 1964
Lorraine Hansberry became a prominent public intellectual advocating black Leftist politics in New York City of the 1950s and early 1960s. She first rose to stardom following the 1959 Broadway production of her award-winning play A RAISIN IN THE SUN. In the summer of 1964, Hansberry participated in a public panel at the New York City Town Hall entitled “Black Revolution and White Backlash: What Is the White Liberal's Role?” and debated the merits of white liberal and radical politics, foreshadowing key themes in her final play, THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW, which premiered on Broadway that fall.
Insisting on an integration that would be nothing less than “a merger on a basis of true and genuine equality,” a social, cultural, and political transformation so profound that “if we think that it isn't going to be painful, we're mistaken,” Hansberry explored the parameters of such a painful transformation in SIGN, posing questions that continue to resonate. What is the distinction between a white liberal and an American radical? What revelations must occur to motivate a white liberal to undertake a radical political position? At what costs? What rewards? Why was such a transformation imperative?
Drawing upon the panel transcript, published and unpublished statements, the play, and its reviews, this paper engages the dynamic interactions among authorial intent, audience reception, the political efficacy of artistic expression, and places Hansberry in her rightful historical place as a politically engaged cultural producer and alongside the Black Arts Movement she helped to establish.