ABSTRACT
Lorraine’s plan, of helping America and the rest of the world to understand the Black family by presenting to them the Younger family, an African American Chicago family in a staged play, the author thought was brilliant. But, they also knew the racist and sexist attitude of the 1950s, the “blame the victim” federal policy in the 1960s and 1970s on through the “Welfare Queen” myth of the 1980s and 1990s, on to the “dead beat,” “absent father” at the turn of the century, up to the lack or stereotypical understanding of the Black family in the present day did not allow for the universal understanding about the Black family that Lorraine had hope for to be achieved. Lorraine kept at the forefront of her mind the highest regard for children and youth, and especially how the cultural, economic, social and political discourses and actions (e.g., integration, Jim and Jane Crow) of the day were impacting their hopes and dreams.
