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Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry Books

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“Don't you understand man? The slogans of capitulation can KILL! Every time we say "Live and let live"--death triumphs! Too much has happened, too much has happened to me. . . . That which warped and distorted all of us is--all around: it is in this very air! This swirling, seething, madness that you ask us all to help maintain! It's no good, Wally--your world. It's no--damn--good! You have forced me to take a position. Finally -- the one thing I never wanted to do. Just being for you is not enough. To live, to breathe--I've got to be against you.”

InspirationalActivismPolitical Philosophy
Book:The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
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“Don't you understand man? The slogans of capitulation can KILL! Every time we say "Live and let live"--death triumphs! Too much has happened, too much has happened to me. . . . That which warped and distorted all of us is--all around: it is in this very air! This swirling, seething, madness that you ask us all to help maintain! It's no good, Wally--your world. It's no--damn--good! You have forced me to take a position. Finally -- the one thing I never wanted to do. Just not being for you is not enough. To live, to breathe--I've got to be against you”

Activism
Book:The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
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“I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from truthful identity of what is.”

ThinkingWritingBelieveIdeasOrderI BelieveSoundPayAttentionIdentityUniversalDramaticTruthfulUniversalityDramatic Writing
Book:Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?
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“I think that the glorious thing about the human race is that it does change the world -- constantly. The world or 'life' may seem to more often overwhelm the human being's capacity for struggling against being overwhelmed which is remarkable and exhilarating.”

ThinkingWorldHumansMayDoeSeemsHuman BeingsRaceStruggleCapacityHuman RaceGloriousChanging The WorldRemarkableOverwhelmedExhilaratingBeing Overwhelmed
Book:Les blancs: the collected last plays of Lorraine Hansberry
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“...Negroes must concern themselves with every single means of struggle: legal, illegal, passive, active, violent and non- violent.... They must harass, debate, petition, boycott, sing hymns, pray on steps--and shoot from their windows when the racists come cruising through their communities.... The acceptance of our condition is the only form of extremism which discredits us before our children [ellipses in source].”

MeanChildrenFormCommunityStepsStruggleConditionsAcceptanceSourcePrayingConcernWindowOur ChildrenActiveDebateViolentCivil RightsRacistIllegalPassiveExtremismCivil Rights MovementHymnsPetitionsDiscreditBoycottNon Violent
Author:Lorraine Hansberry
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“A status not freely chosen or entered into by an individual or a group is necessarily one of oppression and the oppressed are by their nature (i.e., oppressed) forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition”

IfsWayIndividualConsciousnessForeverGroupsConditionsRevolutionThousandChosenOppressionOne WayRebellionOppressedOppressorsAgitation
Author:Lorraine Hansberry
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“I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He got to do with anything?... I'm not going to be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe. I don't even think about that. I just get so tired of Him getting the credit for things the human race achieves through its own effort. Now, there simply is no God. There's only man. And it's he who makes miracles.”

ThinkingMenBelieveHumansEffortRaceAchieveCrimeMiracleTiredDon't BelieveHearingCreditCommitHuman RaceImmoral
Author:Lorraine Hansberry
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“Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning - because that ain't the time at all... When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”

ThinkingWellsChildrenMadeDoneEasyTakenAccountsHillsValleysMeasuringHills And Valleys
Author:Lorraine Hansberry
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“It isn't a circle--it is simply a long line--as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end--we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd by those who see the changes--who dream, who will not give up--are called idealists...and those who see only the circle we call them the "realists"!”

KnowsGivingLongEndsDreamLinesGiving UpCirclesOddInfinityNot Giving UpGeometryRealistIdealistLong Lines
Book:A Raisin in the Sun
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