America experienced an explosive period of suburbia after the Second World War. The “suburban home represented a source of meaning and security” (May 24) for those seeking refuge and comfort after a tumultuous period of war. Among those who migrated from the cities to the suburbs were middle-class African Americans, who sought a suburban life that both “expressed and reinforced their newly acquired social position.” (Wiese 101) However, this middle-class migration from urban areas left behind working-class African Americans such as the Younger family from Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play "A Raisin in the Sun." While the young family in “A Raisin in the Sun” finally realizes the suburban dream of a house with “three bedrooms…and a nice, big basement” (Hansberry 92), the decision to leave the urban area of South Chicago is not encouraged by others. African Americans in the play; on the contrary, the Younger family is greeted with disrespect and derision. Hansberry uses the characters of George Murchison and Mrs. Johnson to illustrate class stratification among African Americans during the postwar period. The scenes with these particular characters highlight the class conflict that occurred within the African American community throughout this suburban period. Before we see how class differences play an important role in “A Raisin in the Sun,” we must examine the location in which the play takes place. takes place. Hansberry defines the play's setting as "the Southside of Chicago, between World War II and the present." (Hansberry 22) The play was written in 1959, before the civil rights movement in America. Nonetheless, this postwar period “illustrates a new wave of black suburbanization” (Wiese 100). As more and more African Americans made the transition from medium to American during the postwar period. As the young working-class family leaves the inner city for the suburbs, it is without the encouragement of any other working-class or middle-class African-American characters in the play. The Youth's experience typifies the class conflict felt by many African Americans during suburban migration. Works Cited Hansberry, Lorraine. A raisin in the sun. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.May, Elaine Tyler. “Confinement at home: cold war, warm home. » Heading Home: American Families in the Cold War Era. By May. New York: BasicBooks, 1988. 16-36.Print. Wiese, Andrew. "'The House I Live in': Race, Class, and African American Suburban Dreams in the Postwar United States." Ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue. The history of the new suburb. Chicago: University of Chicago P, 2006. 99-119. Print.