Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Simone’s music encompassed the mentality and philosophy of the Black Power movement that erupted during the 1960s. The empowerment of Black Americans, especially Black youth, became the primary goal of her music’s message. Some of the most important influences that affected her views of blackness was her personal relationships with Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, and Lorraine Hansberry (Loudermilk). Her connections with this group of people allowed for her development and discussion of black liberation. She collaborated with Langston Hughes to create “Backlash Blues” which was released in 1967. Her friendship with Lorraine Hansberry, author of “A Raisin in the Sun” and “To be Young, Gifted and Black”, was a significant source

In her autobiography, Simone mentions the topics of her conversations with Hansberry to be important subjects like “Marx, Lenin, and revolution- real girl’s talk” (Simone), not trivial topics about clothes or boys. She also recounts a new understanding and perspective of who she is in relation to American society. “I started to think about myself as a black person run by white people and a woman in a world run by men” (Simone). The interpersonal relationships that Simone established fueled her knowledge and passion to provide deeper meaning and purpose in her music. Instead of singing only love songs, she sang songs with more substance and importance that greatly impacted her audience and contributed to the efforts of the black liberation

Simone used her voice to stress that women will not stand for disrespect, abuse, or degradation. Regarding Simone, activist Angela Davis asserts that she “ forged and memorialized images of tough, resilient and independent women who were afraid of neither their own vulnerability nor of defending their right to be respected and autonomous human beings” (Saucier). A woman’s point of view and devotion to expressing black women’s experience was always privileged in Simone’s music. The song “Four Women” released in 1966, exposed the color caste system that Black women experience in society. Each woman defines herself by her skin tone, the texture of her hair, an influential aspect of her life that often affects her perception of the world and her name. Based on these characteristics, the worth and ease of each women’s life is significantly different. The purpose of the song as Simone explained is as follows, that black women “were defined by things they didn’t control, and until they had the confidence to define themselves they’d be stuck in the same mess forever” (Simone). Simone wanted to bust out of the stereotypes that society has categorized them in. To weigh black women’s importance and beauty on their own terms instead of the kinkiness of their hair or the saturation of their melanin became a significant message to