The Law on Stage: Artistic Resistance and Racial Justice

The Law on Stage: Artistic Resistance and Racial Justice

This project investigates how dramatic form and legal narratives converge to expose and contest racial injustice in American history, through an integrated analysis of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths. Hansberry’s ensemble domestic drama reveals the systemic barriers faced by Black families in 1950s America, highlighting historical realities of housing discrimination, economic disenfranchisement, and the legacy of legal battles such as Hansberry v. Lee. The symbolic imagery of deferred dreams—a “raisin” diminished by relentless social pressure—interrogates the costs of racial segregation and the fragility of hope in the face of institutional bias. In contrast, Sakata’s one-man performance reclaims the narrative of constitutional betrayal through the eyes of Gordon Hirabayashi, a man whose personal legal struggle against Japanese internment underscores the Constitution’s dual role as both an idealistic promise and a pragmatic instrument of exclusion. His journey vividly illustrates that legal texts only attain power when actively challenged and defended by those marginalized by history. By examining these works in tandem, the project illuminates how divergent aesthetic strategies—from multi-voiced realism to intimate monologue—reframe historical and legal memory. This interdisciplinary inquiry invites the audience to reflect on the interplay between art and jurisprudence, asking whether legal truths are inherent in written law or are instead perpetuated by collective acts of resistance. The discussion ultimately underscores the enduring need for both creative and critical engagements with our nation’s unresolved racial injustices.