A Raisin in the Sun the Sun" was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first with a black director, Mr. Richards. Hansberry noted that her play introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards observed that it was the first play to which large numbers of black people were drawn. Frank Rich, writing in "The New York Times" in 1983, stated that "A Raisin in the Sun" "changed American theater forever." In 2016, Claire Brennan wrote in "The Guardian" that "The power and craft of the writing make
A Raisin in the Sun a bombing. Her lines are employed as comic relief, but Hansberry also uses this scene to mock those who are too scared to stand up for their rights. In the introduction by Robert B. Nemiroff he writes that the scene is included in print because it draws attention away from a seemingly happy ending to a more violent reality inspired by Hansberry's own experiences. Experiences in this play echo a lawsuit ("Hansberry v. Lee", 311 U.S. 32 (1940)), to which the playwright Lorraine Hansberry's family was a party when they fought to have their day in court because a previous