. .
nd I'm
re my
T nner, n
n rti t from
10 11 re ei e
m jor e hibi­
t the Detroit
Even th ugh Tanner w born
to free p rents. the f mily e - •
perienc d much r ci 01 while
rowing up in Philadelphia. Due
to the overbeanng mount of di -
crimin tion in the United State,
Tanner de ided he did not want
to "fight prej udrce and paint at
the same tim" 0 in 1891 he
p eked his ba and travelled to
Pari .
While in P ri , Tanner di -
covered there were many oppor-
Po trait of Booker T. W
Libr ry adoptlon II t
Of the over 130 potential'
adoptees Ii ted, m ny are
minoritie , have hy leal or
emotional impairment and/or
are p rt of sibling group . For
more information about pecial
needs adoption or the MARE
book, call the Michigan Adop­
tion Re ource Exchange t 1-800-
589-6273.
In order to help Michigan'
mo t need y chi ldre n fi nd
families and homes, the Detroit
Public Library is adding to it
collection a listing, with
phorog raphs of adopt ble
children. The directory,
produced by the Michigan
Adoption Resource Exchange
(MARE) will be a permanent
part of the reference sections at
all 26 branch Iibrarles.
The Tanner amily
The new per pective for African-American
Museums
By C I'Olyo W rfleld
Arts Cornspondenl
he i faIJliliar.)
Voices cross America are as­
king parity.
The last censu showed a 33
per cent increa e in persons
claimi ng Native American an­
ce try. In reaffirming their cul­
tural identity, Native Americans
call for repatriation of historical
artifacts.
with audience "call and
repon e."
"Atrtcan-Amerlc urns
are in need of fin I upport
from their respective com­
munities," Brown proclaimed.
"Blacks have 8 strong record of
public service.· but giving
money to muse ums is new."
Most African.-American
Museums receive government
funding and are sebsidlzed at a
lower percentage than large es­
tablished institutions.
For generations, African­
Americans have realized the im­
portance of conserving their
roots. Visionary leader hip has
. kept. Black history abundant
despi te scarce resources and ra­
cial bias.
Prior to the Civil War
African-Americans established
libraries and reading rooms in
New York, Michigan and Ohio.
Hampton In titute (the oldest
African-American Museum) has
records of cultural traditions
from archival records.
Through the ages, private and
public institutions have focused
on a narrow segment of hi tory.
ami sions of ethnic heritage
from public presentation are ex­
tensive.
In America, there was no in­
terest in the material culture of
ordinary people. The eliti t idea
that "only the remarkable" was
worthy of preservation has un­
dergone tremendous scrutiny
ince the 1960's.
Rich Hill, Director of the
American Indian Art Institute.
thinks that museums are being
challenged to accept a "dialogic
approach" in their exclusion of
ethnici ty.
Hill sees the historical inter­
preter within the community as
the" authoritative voice." (He
has- lived an experience that only
SUCCESSFUL planning for
African-American Museums
should reflect "viable citizens
read y to gi ve back" through
African perspectives and profes­
sional stdf training.
Smithsonian's ' National
Museum is due to open in 1995. '
Collection will represent im- .
ages and material culture from
the diaspora; African­
Americans in the media and his­
torical material from the Civil
. Rights and labor movements.
IN RAISING constitutional
issues of what a gift is, tribal
representatives contend that "all
Objects belong to the maker,"
and are demanding return of all
human and burial remains.
Claudine Brown, Project
Director for the Smithsonian's
propo ed African-American
Museum view African­
American Musesums as centers
of community culture in touch
Book Review
rate portrait of Lorraine Hansberry
Steven Carter's ace
by Dr. Gerald Horne
CluJirman, African Studies
Department University oj
Californill, SantG Barbara
neighborhood of their choice.
SHE SHOWED her
knowledge of the Caribbean in
her adaptation of Masters 0/ the
Dew by the great Haitian writer
and activist Jacques Roumain.
To be Young, Gifted and Black is
not only a moving theatrical ex­
perience, but the title itself cap­
tures the es ence of an entire
generation.
The fate of her collaboration
wi tb the great Haitian' Com- ,
munis t, roumain - a work
which deserves, according to the
author, "both publication and
production" - is indicative of
what can happen to a progressive
writer, even one of Hansberry's
stature, in the so-called "free
marketplace of ideas."
She had to ue just to get fair
payment for her screenplay but
the ultimate tragedy wa that it
was not produced. The
screenplay of A Raisin in the Sun
wa assailed by Hollywood
moguls; "likewi e, with their
eye on the foreign market, -the
executives wished to censor any
uncomplimentary comment
about colonial Britain and
France and any trace of anti­
colonialist sentiment."
Such factor are 'ignored by
critics like Cruse, which h� the
perhaps intended consequence of
letting the powerful off the hook.
To hi credit, Prof. Carter ham­
mers thi point home.
Perhap the mo t important
a pect of H nsberry' legacy is
Hansberry, Robeson and other
leading African-American left­
wing intellectuals was promoted
her political activism. Unlike
too many of today's writers who
see their art as their only con­
tribution, Hansberry felt com­
pelled to enter the fray of
activism.
be a premature feminist, while
pointing out properly early on,
"to the extent that the feminist
leaders pronounced men rather
than ideology as enemy, they
deserved correction."
Hansberry has to be viewed as
one of the leading creative
writers not only of ber people but
of this country as well. She
"mingled realism with fantasy,
tragedy with comedy and drama
with dance and music." She
employed many different forms
of speaking, including "Black
English." She knew that "in
order to create the univer al, you
must pa very great attention to
the specific." ,
She rejected the current fad
among certain "buppies" of play­
ing down racial identity in a vain
bid to be "universal," in their
case meaning conforming to
elite norm and trying to pass
,. them off as "universal buman
value ."
Though A Raisin in the Sun
was her most important work, it
was not her sole work of ig­
nificance. 'She displayed her
versatility in The Sign in Sidney
Brustein's Window by riting in­
sightfully and creating moving
Euro-American characters. Les
Blanes reveals her kno ledge of
Africa and the peril of neo­
colonialism. The Drinking
Gourd is a profound exploration
of U.S. lavery.
LIKE MANY other great ar­
tists, she drew deeply upon her
own experience to weave her
rich tapestries of drama. Carter
observes cogently that she
satirized "various foibles of the
Black American middle class,
(their) delight in luxury and
status, slavish attachment to the
latest fashion, contempt for the
alms and abili ties of the lower
class, conformity to a rigid code
of social behavior and pragmatic
indifference to knowledge for its
own sake."
, Despite this trend in her work
and her avowed po litrcal
radicalism, Hansberry somehow
- nas been presented to a, younger
generation as the embodiment of
some if the more negative mid­
dle class traits that she in fact
abhorred.
This is due in large part to the
inaccurate portrayal of her in the
ill-researched memoir of Harold
Cruse-a portrai t that has been
updated in the parody by George
Wolfe of her premier work, A
Raisin in the Sun.
Because the Black family in
this play sought a less cramped
home, Cruse interpreted this as
orne sort of "integrationist" fan­
tasy; Carter is perceptive in
noting Cruse's "own ignorance
of the lives of one large egment
o workin-class Blacks."
Cruse' bludgeoning of
If Paul Robeson was the tal­
Ie t tree in our forest, certainly
,bi good friend Lorraine
Hansberry was the brightest star
in out constellation.
She died in 1965 at the tender
age of 34, but during her all-too-
ief life she made an indelible
impact on art, polittcs and the
connection between the two.
Steven R. Carter has written a
masterful literary and intellec­
tual biography of this heroine
that causes us to appreciate her
em us even more.
Her uncle was the legendary
Prof. William Leo Hansberry a
pioneering scholar of Africa wbo
taught for many years at Howard
Univer ity. Her fatber, Carl
Hansberry, built a highly sue­
ces ful real e tate busine in
Chicago, but unlike too many in
tbe contemporary Black middle
class, he never lost sight of the
needs and pain of his com­
munity, his people.
It wa he who pus bed forward
the landmar U.S. Supreme
Court case of Hansberry v. Lee,
which served to undermine
restrictive convenant to snder­
mine restrictive covenants and
make it a bit e sier for African­
Americ ns and all other who
have suffered bias to move' to the
THIS WAS especially true
during the difficult days of the
McCarthy era when others were
running for cover away from
"radical" like Robeson and Du­
Bois. Indeed she me t her future
husband, Robert Nemiroff, on a
picket line. In the 19605 he
helped to raise funds for the
shoock troop of the movement;
the Student Non-Violent Coor­
dinating Committee (SN C).
In short, Han berry wa a
woman for all seasons, a true
"role model" during a time when
they are needed so desperately.
If there were justice, her life
would have been committed to
the silver screen by now. Steven
R. Carter's fine work should help
acquaint legions of others with
her shining brilliance.
Hansberry' Drama: Commit­
ment amid Complexity can be or­
dered from the Univer ity of
Illinoi Pre ,P.O. Box 4856,
Hampden Post Office; Bal­
timore, MD 21211. Orden can
also be phoned in, toll-free, by
dialing 800/545-4703.
Lorraine Han berry
heavily and et the stage for an
anti-intellectural narrow
nationalism that continues to
plague our community.
MANY WERE disturbed by
Hansberry' frank espousal of
socialist ideas while other were
outraged by her le biani m. Yet,
it is long past due time to con­
templa te the fact that the two
leading literary lights in our
communi ty in recent time -
Hansberry and Jame Baldwin­
happened to be gay.
Some' have speculated that
multiple oppres ion heighten
sensitivity, which spawns
creativity. She also happened to