WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:04.040 Absolutely amazing to have you joined us here on Truth 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:07.559 Time with doctor Cornell West and Nina Turner. As you know, 3 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.679 we always counted all joy to be together with you 4 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:16.519 in moments like this. This is our teaching Thursday and 5 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:21.039 on today we are discussing the life and the legacy 6 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:25.640 the imprint of the one and only Lorraine Handsbury. And 7 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:27.839 I know every time Doc and I do a teacher 8 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.640 in Thursday where we're talking about an individual, it is 9 00:00:30.679 --> 00:00:33.880 always the one and only, because really they are the 10 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:35.920 one and only there at the top of their game, 11 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.200 top of their class, they made they left an indelible 12 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:44.399 mark on this world. And there's a cloud of witnesses 13 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:49.640 for people like this, and Lorraine Handsbury is right in 14 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:53.119 there now. She wrote a Raisin in the Sun, a 15 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.479 play about a struggling black family, and this is how 16 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:58.240 she came into prominence. I think she was the youngest 17 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:04.159 and the first black black woman or just black person. Doc, 18 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:11.120 I forget the distinction to win the prestigious New York 19 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:13.840 Critics Circle Award, which was really a big deal. But 20 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.760 Raising in the Sun is not her only work, but 21 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:18.959 it is the work that she is best known for, 22 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:23.079 and it's about a struggling black family which opened and 23 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.799 that opened on Broadway, which was all the rage. Even today, 24 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:30.439 Raising in the Sun is still quite a classic Sidney 25 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:35.159 Poitier played, Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you have not seen 26 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:39.840 The Raisin in the Sun or and or read read 27 00:01:39.879 --> 00:01:42.239 the book, you definitely need to do it. She's the 28 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:46.920 granddaughter of freed enslaved person, the youngest by seven years 29 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:52.920 of four children. Lorraine Vivie and Hansbury was born on 30 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.560 May nineteen, That's also Minister Malcolm X's birthday. To doc, 31 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:02.040 she was born on May nineteen, nineteen thirty, and she 32 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:05.640 left this plane of existence on January of twelve, nineteen 33 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:10.439 sixty five. She was born in Shottown and she died 34 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:14.159 in New York. So I'm setting that up for you. 35 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.759 I'm setting that layup for you. Lorraine Hansbury. 36 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:23.120 Yeah, well, you're absolutely right. There's simply nobody like her. 37 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:25.800 But it's important to keep in mind that she writes 38 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:30.319 against the backdrop of a great black literary tradition. One 39 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:33.159 there's no literary tradition in the modern world which has 40 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:37.719 been initiated by women and every genre other than the 41 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.719 Black literary tradition in the United States. You got Phyllis 42 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:43.759 Wheatley and Pope got here At Jacobs in the novel 43 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:49.039 You Got, ant Latold's first collection of essays, You Got 44 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.319 Marie Evans, the first public speaker. And Lorraine Hansbury, of 45 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:55.800 course takes the play to the highest level in the 46 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:58.800 saying which same way in which Tony Morrison takes it 47 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:01.560 to the highest level, the same way in which the 48 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.439 first wave of blues artists at the highest level of 49 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.840 mul Rainey and Bessie Smith. So that we brothers, you know, 50 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.120 we've done some magnificent things, but we are part of 51 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:17.639 a tradition that has been dominated both as pioneers and 52 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:22.000 as culminating points by black women. And Lorraine Hansbury and 53 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:25.680 just takes Let people take a look at here. This 54 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.439 is who we're talking about. She'd be dead at thirty 55 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:33.000 four years old and produced more than most people in 56 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.479 a lifetime. And of course I got I didn't want 57 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:40.360 to lose and miss out Gwendolyn Brooks at the poetry 58 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.400 at the point I'm making as well, but to die 59 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.680 at thirty four years old. She died January twelfth, nineteen 60 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:51.560 sixty five, was the last funeral that Malcolm X attended. 61 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.199 He was on the front row. Paul Robinson gave the 62 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.599 eulogies the only time that Paul Robinson met Malcolm X, 63 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:01.080 and Malcolm was very, very eager to meet Paul Roberson. 64 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:05.080 But our dear sister was in the coffin at that 65 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.759 particular church in Harlem in January nineteen sixty five. Malcolm, 66 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:13.080 of course would die the next month. Both born the 67 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:17.680 same day, but five years apart, uncome twenty five, she 68 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:22.040 in nineteen thirty. So that when we're talking about Lorraine Hansbury, 69 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:25.560 you're talking about this great, great wave in a grand, 70 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:29.480 grand ocean. You mentioned her father, Carl, who was quite 71 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:32.879 an activist, ended up in Mexico because of the racism 72 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:35.720 in America, because of him his attempt to move into 73 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:41.839 a white neighborhood and the ugly response, even gunshots cutting 74 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:46.680 through the windows of his family. Nanny, his wife, who 75 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:51.600 was Lorraine's mother, was also quite an activist. So Lorraine 76 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.560 grew up in a context where she met du Boys 77 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:57.519 when she was very young. She met Rose when she 78 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:01.279 was very young, she met Duke was very young. She 79 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.199 was like you and I in terms of just growing 80 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:08.920 up in an ordinary black neighborhood, in the ordinary black church, 81 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.800 in a black community. She actually had access to these 82 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:16.399 giants as a very young person. She never went to college, 83 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:21.319 but the college went through her Toversity of Wisconsin and 84 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.399 then made her way up spending time in Mexico to 85 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:27.600 New York to be a writer. So she has a 86 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:31.519 special kind of calling. She had genius, and she had, 87 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:36.319 as you noted before, commitment to writing, and especially in 88 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:39.720 her twenties. She writes and Raisin in the sun, I 89 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:43.319 mean that's and you're so right. She wrote many other 90 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:48.600 praise LeBlanc's a critique of African colonialism. She wrote sign 91 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:52.800 in Sydney Brusting's Window, which are no black characters at all, 92 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.920 just all white and Jewish folk. She wrote, what's the 93 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:01.879 use of flowers? Was the critique of waiting for the Beckett. 94 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:06.399 She wrote a whole host of plays and essays to 95 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:10.120 be Young, Gifted in Black, which is her collection of essays. 96 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:15.720 It was just a classic, all before she thirty four 97 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:20.680 years old. I keep coming back to that because she 98 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:25.600 was so invested, she was so involved, She was willing 99 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:32.160 to sacrifice to do what she was put here to do, 100 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:36.120 put her pen to paper, and when she did. The 101 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:37.560 world was shaken. 102 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:44.000 Yeah, indelible. Mark. We are on our truth on truth Time, 103 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.079 our teaching Thursday. We're talking about the life and the 104 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:54.360 impact of Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright in many ways, of 105 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.879 civil rights activists in her own right and revealing stories 106 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:02.319 that really shift I just a love leader. We can say, 107 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:07.439 you know that shifts consciousness and makes people uncomfortable. Yeah, 108 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:10.879 she did that, and she absolutely changed the world. When 109 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:15.399 we come forward, we'll continue our conversation. So glad again 110 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:17.759 that you are here with us on this teach in 111 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:21.079 Thursday on Truth Time with doctor Cornell West and Nina Turner. 112 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:25.720 If you've missed any part of not only Teaching Thursdays, 113 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:29.040 but any of our daily shows, make sure you download 114 00:07:29.079 --> 00:07:33.439 the Kate BLA fifteen eighty app. You gotta do that, 115 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:38.199 the KBLA Talk fifteen eighty app. And wherever you get 116 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:41.920 your podcast, you can catch us and our colleagues. The 117 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:48.360 whole network is just teeming with brilliance and you can 118 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:50.800 watch us, or you can catch us on YouTube too, 119 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:53.680 or the two. As my grandson likes to say. We're 120 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:58.959 talking about Lorraine Hansbury, a playwright, a leader through through 121 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:01.360 through the through the not just the written word, but 122 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:06.240 having her works come to life on stage, which is 123 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:08.959 indeed a beautiful thing. En it up self. She made 124 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:13.800 history winning the New York Critics Award the youngest and 125 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:16.399 the only deck I got to check. I don't know 126 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:18.839 if she was the first. Was she the first black 127 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:19.680 person to win it? 128 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:21.480 Yeah? 129 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:24.839 Okay, the first black person to win the New York 130 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.519 Critics Award, which is a very big deal her her 131 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:32.600 most the work she is most famous for is A 132 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:36.279 Raisin in the Sun, and she wrote it was really 133 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:39.879 titled the Crystal Stare, That's what I was the original 134 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.480 title of it. A play about a struggling black family 135 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:47.519 in Chicago, which was later renamed or Raisin in the Sun, 136 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:53.000 a line from one of my favorite poets, Langston Hughes. 137 00:08:53.799 --> 00:08:57.519 Oh my god, who you know? Cleveland? Cleveland got Legston 138 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.360 Hughes all up in us? But that poem and the 139 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:06.080 play opened at the Barrymore the fo Barrymore Theater on 140 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:10.039 March eleventh, nineteen fifty nine, and was a great success, 141 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:13.480 and it had a run of over five hundred and 142 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:19.799 thirty performances. People were on fire about this play. It 143 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:24.080 was the first play produced on Broadway by an African 144 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:28.720 American woman nineteen fifty nine. That it took a long time, 145 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:30.320 but she broke that barrier. 146 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.240 That's exactly right, and she did it on her own terms. 147 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:36.480 That's very, very important because it could have been a 148 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.320 number of plays that had been used. 149 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:39.360 When. 150 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:47.759 Edited, imundated by folk that tried to curtail the power 151 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:52.080 of the play. But Raising in the Sun was a 152 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:57.080 play written by a free black loved herself, who respected 153 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.440 herself and required the White way, which is what Broadway 154 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:06.480 was required, the White way to respect Black talent. Yeah, 155 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.519 that's very important, very important. 156 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.759 Yeah, absolutely, oh my god. Yeah, to do and especially 157 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:16.960 in nineteen fifty nine, to be able to do something 158 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.480 of this magnitude on your own terms. I mean even 159 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:23.519 in twenty twenty five, Black people find it incredibly difficult 160 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.720 most of the time to do things on our own terms. 161 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:33.840 That does not get us a psychologically bruised. So just 162 00:10:34.039 --> 00:10:39.360 in Langston Hughes's poem Harlem, I want to Yeah, it's 163 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:43.120 a very short poem, and you can feel the emotions 164 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:46.600 of that poem. It's short and it's powerful. What happens 165 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:49.399 to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a 166 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:52.759 raisin in the sun, or fester like a sore and 167 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:57.200 then run. Does it stink like rotten meat or crust 168 00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:02.879 and sugar over like a syrupiece. Maybe it just SAgs 169 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:07.679 like a heavy low or does it explodes? So that 170 00:11:08.039 --> 00:11:13.279 is Lengthston Hughes's poem, Harlem, what happens to a dream? 171 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.720 You know the first the first stands of what happens 172 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.679 to a dream deferred? And that is a seminal question. 173 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.840 That is a question for a lifetime. What happens to 174 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:27.080 a dream deferred? 175 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:30.919 That's exactly right in many ways, it's the history of 176 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:32.639 black people in America. 177 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.919 Yeah, yes, sir, constantly asking that question and constantly being 178 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:44.399 put in positions where our dreams are deferred generationally. So 179 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:49.200 you know, no exaggeration about that. And this nation has 180 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:55.240 never been able to one come to grips with the 181 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:58.559 fact that it is because of the structure of this 182 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.600 nation that Black people find themselves generationally having to constantly 183 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:09.000 ask themselves that question and answer it. We answer over 184 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:12.960 and over. We know what happens to dream deferd? You're lynched, 185 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:21.720 you know your chattel, you live in Jim Crow, debt, peinage, sharecropping, 186 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:27.799 red lining, lack of generational wealth. Can't get in the 187 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:32.919 C suites unless you're cleaning the C suites. Oh, we 188 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:38.960 know utality, a political system that continues to churn on 189 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:43.320 our backs and our bodies. We know what happens to 190 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:44.279 a dream deferred. 191 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:50.759 Powerful. That's powerful, that's eloquent. That's exactly right. And part 192 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:53.399 of the two has to do with exactly what the 193 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:56.879 dream is. You see, when Martin King said he had 194 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.960 a dream, he didn't say my dream, it is it dream? 195 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.600 He said, my dream is rooted the American dream. That's 196 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:10.279 a dialectical critique of the American dream. The American dream 197 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:17.639 is a materialistic dream, obsessed with status and position, whereas 198 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:22.840 the dream for black freedom includes the poverty. Yes, there 199 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:28.080 is a certain prosperity for everybody, but it's not an obsession. 200 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:34.559 It's not a fetishizing or an idolizing of just material things. 201 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.759 It's about self respect. It's about self esteem, it's about 202 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:42.759 self regard. It's about quality of community. It's about the 203 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:47.799 right kinds of relationships so that human beings power and flourish. 204 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.879 That has a spiritual and a moral dimension to it. 205 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:54.200 That talk about the American dream doesn't have at all, 206 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:58.320 is he Trump living the American dream? He's a thorough 207 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:02.399 going gangster. You don't have a spiritual either, now a 208 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:08.279 bone of spirituality and morality in his body. But he's 209 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:14.200 a success. And so that, Uh, when when when? When? When? When? When? When? 210 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:18.480 Lorraine Hensbery, Lorraine Hansbury is talking about raising in the 211 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:22.679 sun and the dream deferred. You know, her dream coming 212 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.279 out of the Black freedom struggle is in no way 213 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:30.440 the same or identical with the mainstream American dream. But 214 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:34.240 it's still a dream. Yeah, still a dream, but it 215 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:38.320 has elements in terms of yes, we want prosperity, Yes 216 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:40.679 we want to be able to live life with a 217 00:14:40.679 --> 00:14:44.159 certain kind of decency, but at that deeper level of 218 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:49.360 character and integrity, honesty and decency. That that's what Walter 219 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:52.320 was all about in that play when when the mama 220 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:55.639 and his mama looks at him and says, we used 221 00:14:55.720 --> 00:15:00.919 to talk about freedom. Now everybody only talks about money. Yeah, 222 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:04.000 nineteen fifty nine, she said. We used to talk about 223 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:06.759 self respect, and we used to talk about helping each other. 224 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:09.360 We used to talk about a sense of community. Now 225 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:16.200 it's just this isolated individualism and careerism and opportunism and noncistism. 226 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:22.519 Now that's that mama, who herself again didn't go to college, 227 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:24.559 but at least two colleges went through her. 228 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.840 Yeah, ain't that the truth? Doctor, It's I mean, we 229 00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:32.960 use the term wrestle with and brother Tavis uses that too. 230 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.320 I think that is a beautiful, simple description of what 231 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.720 black people have to do on every level of society, 232 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:45.240 and certainly Lorraine Hansbury captures that in her works, and 233 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.320 particularly in The Raisin in the Sun. As we were 234 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.639 coming forward, talked about the fact that she's the granddaughter 235 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:56.399 of free enslaved persons, and I mean, most black people 236 00:15:56.440 --> 00:16:00.600 track their lineage right there, you know, right there, and 237 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:06.080 you know her her father was, her father was a 238 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:10.879 successful real estate broker. Oh yeah, And this part is 239 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:18.200 important because black people are disproportionately impoverished. Sometimes we forget 240 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.799 that there were very successful, very middle class, upper middle 241 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:27.759 class of black people are running the world, so to speak. 242 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:29.879 They were, and they were there, and a lot of 243 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.000 them donated to the causes of black uplift because if 244 00:16:34.039 --> 00:16:38.240 they didn't do it, nobody else would. And your point 245 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.480 about what the mother the character, the mother character said, 246 00:16:42.519 --> 00:16:45.519 I often say that black people have picked up other 247 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:49.279 people's bad habits. And that's pretty much what encapsulates what 248 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:51.679 the mother was saying. We used to talk about this. 249 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:56.679 Now all we care about is that we used you know. 250 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.000 So yeah, we have picked up other people's bad habits 251 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:05.440 and it reaks havoc on our community. We can't be 252 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:10.000 like everybody else. I no, I don't wish that we could, 253 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:13.000 because we the most emulated people on the planet, But 254 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.839 in terms of how they get over, society don't let 255 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:19.200 us get over in the same way. So we just cannot. 256 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:23.160 It's an immutable fact. I think it's always going to 257 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:27.559 be that way. It's similarly people like doctor WB the 258 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:32.799 Boys and Nina Simone and so many others who knew 259 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.920 that they had to leave this place because their souls 260 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:40.319 were being stripped. Doc every single second in this country, 261 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:47.079 the souls of black people are being stripped. Fight. I 262 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:50.240 mean we fight. We're resilient, We're definitely resilient as hell. 263 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:54.799 But it is tiring. It is exhausting to have to 264 00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:55.920 do that all the time. 265 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:01.599 Oh, that is so very true. That is so very true. 266 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:05.200 And she talked about this a lot in her journals 267 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.359 in terms of even as a middle class woman who 268 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:12.640 decided to be in solidarity with the poor. She moved 269 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:15.720 right here to New York and became associate editor of 270 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:19.880 the Freedom Journal that was edited by Louis Burnham, but 271 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:24.319 it was produced by Paul Robison, and basically became not 272 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:31.240 just a socialist but a revolutionary socialist. And so she 273 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:37.440 would talk about how spiritually it was so difficult to 274 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.319 be able to sustain herself even though she gained strength 275 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:45.240 from black people. She gained strength from black culture, she 276 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:48.160 gained strength from black music. That we made the point 277 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.839 before that she was a godmother of Lisa, who was 278 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:57.799 the daughter of Nina Simone. Deep connection to two giants 279 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:02.480 and geniuses, right dead, good call might. But she's there 280 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:04.559 with the boys. She's said the boy. She's close to 281 00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:08.319 Paul Robson. She goes to Uruguay when Robson's passport is 282 00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:11.200 taking away. You can't leave the country. He asked her 283 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:13.839 to do it for him, which means to court. The 284 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.319 FBI is on her like well on right and black 285 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.359 on coal, back on coal and wet on water. 286 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:28.680 I mean, just the trauma, it's it's uh, it's immeasurable, 287 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:32.559 the trauma. Just the trauma. So her you know, going 288 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:36.880 back to her narratives to her father is it's a 289 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:39.440 real estate broker. And her mother was a school teacher. 290 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:43.000 A lot of black women, you know, that profession forced 291 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:49.160 to be domestics disproportionately, definitely being a school teacher very honorable, 292 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.599 very noble, very highly respected, as it should be even 293 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:57.279 to this day. And they were viciously attacked. Doc, I 294 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:00.799 think you started talking about that. I want to lay 295 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:03.799 out the frame a little more, a little deeper. In 296 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:08.240 nineteen thirty eight, Hansbury's family moved to a white neighborhood. 297 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:11.519 Now why the neighborhood got to be a white neighborhood, 298 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:13.279 But I digress. I'm gonna put that in the parking lot. 299 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:16.880 We know they moved to a white neighborhood and because 300 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:21.680 just because of their very presence, they didn't do anything wrong, 301 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:26.079 they were attacked, stock attacked. They moved into a neighborhood 302 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:29.519 that they can afford to live in, and the white 303 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:36.000 folks of that neighborhood attacked them just because they're black. 304 00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:39.279 So they moved into this neighborhood. They wanted them out, 305 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:44.279 you know, you got to go, and they refused. They 306 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:50.480 stood strong, They stood in the strength of blackness, and 307 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:58.640 then a court ordered them to move. See I want 308 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:03.240 them to system it. The system forced him to move. 309 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:05.720 Go ahead, doctor, But then it went all the way 310 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:11.279 to the Supreme Court, year after year at and by 311 00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:14.319 the time it hit the Supreme Court, you know, the 312 00:21:14.440 --> 00:21:19.000 damage had already been done. That the fou left the country, 313 00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:21.279 said he want nothing to do with America and moved 314 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:26.039 to Mexico and had dropped dead in Mexico. So she 315 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:31.799 would say white supremacy helped kill my f He was 316 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:39.039 so deeply Republican party operative. He was deeply invested in America. 317 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:42.519 But it broke his heart. It broke his heart, and 318 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:45.480 I think that radicalized her as Yeah. 319 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:48.799 Yeah, you could see it in her works. And that 320 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:55.680 Supreme Court case that you're referring to, Hansbury Hansbury versus Lee, Uh, 321 00:21:57.079 --> 00:21:59.680 it ended up, but the damage was already done to 322 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.920 the hand very family. That's why we fight, do you 323 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:05.799 and you talk? You and I We gotta fight today 324 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:08.920 for ourselves. We're fighting for the past, and we're also 325 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.759 fighting for tomorrow. Even though this ruling didn't necessarily it 326 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:17.440 the the damage was already done. But in the ruling 327 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:24.039 restrictive they ruled restrictive covenants or illegal because of that case. 328 00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:29.000 Stop because of that case. And even in the city 329 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:31.240 of Cleveland, the city of Shaker, which is a suburban 330 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:36.400 community of Cleveland, they had restrictive covenants. No black people, 331 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:42.000 no Jewish people. They even have barriers that because the community, 332 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:44.559 the Cleveland community that I live in, that I grew 333 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:49.319 up in a butt Shaker, right, and they put on 334 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.279 the side street doc these barriers so that you couldnot 335 00:22:53.559 --> 00:22:59.039 cross over into Shaker, the city of Shaker, from Cleveland 336 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:04.200 on the resididential streets. Wow, oh yeah, oh yeah. And 337 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:06.799 this is really like this was during my you know, 338 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:11.240 the seventies eighties, during my childhood. Like this, this is real. 339 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:15.200 So the whole and then the whole Shaker Square, which 340 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:20.240 is historic, the whole notion of Shaker, restrictive covenants, all 341 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:25.000 up in the deeds, all up in the des not 342 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:31.759 you know, we're not talking one hundred, two hundred years ago. Wow, wow, 343 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:38.240 less than sixty years ago. Is wild, I mean, just 344 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:44.319 absolutely wild. So Hansbury Hansbury, the Lee ruling. The Supreme 345 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.079 Court finally did rule that restrictive covenants were illegal. But again, 346 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:52.839 look at how many dreams were deferred before we got there. 347 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:55.759 You're listening to Truth Time with doctor Cornell West and 348 00:23:56.039 --> 00:23:59.799 Nina Turner on our Teaching Thursday, lifting up the life 349 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:06.319 of Legacy the brilliance of playwright Lorraine Hansbury. You are 350 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:09.200 listening to Truth Time with doctor Cornell West and Nina 351 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:11.880 Turner on Our Teacher on Thursday. We're talking about the 352 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:17.519 brilliance of Lorraine Hansbury, the playwright, a woman who accomplished 353 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:23.880 so much in a very very short time on this earth. 354 00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:27.880 Her very existence was revolutionary, as it is for most 355 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:31.599 black people, and she got an opportunity to leave an 356 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:36.359 indelible mark on the world through her works. She was 357 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.440 born on May nineteenth, nineteen thirty, in Chicago, Illinois, and 358 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.799 she passed away on January the twelfth, nineteen sixty five, 359 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.640 in New York. So, Doc, her family, you know, highly 360 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:51.279 middle class still, you know, going back to that point 361 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:53.880 about her father, her mother being a teacher, her father 362 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.880 being a real estate broker and highly successful. It really 363 00:24:58.039 --> 00:25:02.200 just shows that money does not shield black people from 364 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:04.680 the pain of being black. 365 00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:10.359 That's true. That's true, and that having money does not 366 00:25:10.599 --> 00:25:13.960 impede one from being in solidarity with folk who have 367 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:20.000 no money pro choices. She made political choices. She made 368 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:25.000 idiot choices. That was a kind of what Huey Newton 369 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.839 would call a class suicide. It's like Martin King. He 370 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:32.720 could have remained middle class, but he decided to be 371 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:36.640 in solidity with folk who were broke as the Ten 372 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:42.480 Commandments financially. And that is a life very much of 373 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:47.960 Lorraine Hansbury, that she chooses to be a revolutionary. Yeah, 374 00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:52.039 she really does. You see it now, just work. You 375 00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:54.839 see it in her activism. When she was asked to 376 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:58.200 go to the White House representing Snicks, she ended up 377 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:01.640 telling off to Kennedy's and telling them that they had 378 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:04.559 no sense of what was going on in the world. 379 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.200 That she was going to stand for the students who 380 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:09.720 that they were trashing there in the White House. Is 381 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:15.839 very famous exchange that she had with the with the 382 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:19.640 White House advisor. She was standing in the name of 383 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:23.920 Stokely Carmichael and Diane Nash. Very close of course to 384 00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:28.440 James Baldwin, his famous essay Sweet Lorraine. I would highly 385 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.200 recommend that the people you want to read with the 386 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:34.559 best of James Baldwin. It's his tribute to Lorraine Hansbury 387 00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:42.200 called sweet Lorraine. And Baldwin himself was also there and 388 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:45.359 was very uh, I mean, he was just proud to 389 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:48.079 be in the room with Lorraine. But she had to 390 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:51.920 tell off the Kennedy's and actually ended the meeting while 391 00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:55.000 out on them in the White House. That's a rare 392 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:58.559 thing to have black folks just to walk out on 393 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:03.119 president and vice presidents and attorney generals. Most black folks 394 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:05.319 so happy to be in the White House. They cow 395 00:27:05.559 --> 00:27:09.519 towing and help when they get in there. 396 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.039 You know, Ain't that the truth? 397 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:12.200 That? 398 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:16.400 Yeah, what a powerful statement for her to dramatically. I 399 00:27:16.519 --> 00:27:19.400 love a flair for drop for the dramatic to get 400 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:21.400 up and walk out on these folks knowing they don't 401 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:24.640