Dr. John Prentiss' "You Don't Own Me!" Speech

In the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, black physician John Prentiss, meets and falls in love with a young white woman, Katharine Drayton, while on vacation in Hawaii.  They return to the United States where they are invited to dinner at the Drayton's, played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, a liberal couple from San Francisco. The doctor's parents, who are also invited, fly in from Los Angeles.  Dr. Prentiss and Joanna drop a bombshell at the dinner table:  they are engaged.

The evening is passed in heated conversation over the pros and cons of a biracial marriage.  Mr. Drayton, a supposed liberal, is not prepared to practise what he preaches when it comes to his own daughter.  Dr. Prentiss' father feels that, because he carried a mail bag for 40 years to support his family, his son owes him something.  His son, however, responds with "You don't own me."  Here is an excerpt from Dr. Prentiss's speech, brilliantly delivered by actor Sidney Poitier:

"You've said what you had to say.  Now listen to me.  You say you don't want to tell me how to live my life?  So what do you think you've been doing?  You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got and what I owe to you for what you've done for me.  Let me tell you something.  I owe you nothing!  If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you were supposed to do because you brought me into this world and from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another.  But you don't own me!  You can't tell me when or where I'm out of line or try to get me to live my life according to your rules.  You don't even know what I am, Dad.  You don't know who I am.  You don't know how I feel, what I think.  And if I tried to explain it for the rest of your life, you will never understand.

You are 30 years older than I am.  You and your whole lousy generation believes that the way it was for you is the way it's got to be.  And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs!  You understand?  You've got to get off my back!

Dad.  Dad.  You're my father.  I am your son.  I love you.  I always have and I always will.  But you think of yourself as a coloured man.  I think of myself as a man.  Hmm?  Now, I've got a decision to make.  And I've got to make it alone.  And I've got to make it in a hurry.  So would you get out there and see after my mother?" (http://www.filmsite.org/bestspeeches22.htm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkGFOakMEmI

To Sir With Love Character Based on British Guiana Engineer

E. R. Braithwaite, circa 1959, the year the his book To Sir With Love was published courtesy http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2417081/QUENTIN-LETTS-First-night-review-To-Sir-With-Love.html.

To Sir With Love is a 1967 movie starring Sidney Poitier, a black teacher who is charged with teaching in a rough London high school during the swinging sixties.  Despite racist attitudes and despite the students' lack of motivation, Poitier's character is determined to stick it out  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Sir,_with_Love).

To Sir With Love is based on the book of the same name, published in 1959 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Sir,_With_Love_(novel).  The author, E. R. Braithwaite, was a British Guiana Engineer who came to Britain during the Second World War and signed on with the RAF.  At the war's end, he looked for work, but failed to find a job due to the anti-black attitudes of the time period.

A friend recommended that Braithwaite apply to a high school in London's East End, a rough neighbourhood.  The war veteran soon found out that the students were semi-literate and lacked the motivation to learn.  They tried everything in their power to make their new teacher's job difficult. Braithwaite pointed out that they were almost adults, and that they needed to be prepared for the outside world.  He set new ground rules:  he would let them decide the topics of study but in exchange they were to give him the respect that he deserved.  Braithwaite went above and beyond the call of duty, taking them on several field trips to museums, an experience they had never had before.  The students responded in kind; his enthusiasm was infectious.

A young teacher, Gillian Blanchard , accompanied them on their field trips.  Gradually, she and Braithwaite started to fall in love.  However, given that Gillian was white and Braithwaite was black, her parents did not approve of their interracial relationship.  Despite their misgivings, they realized that they must trust their daughter's judgement.

After a decade, Braithwaite decided to change careers.  His students ordered monogrammed cigarettes for their teacher, wrapped them and wrote on the gift, "To Sir With Love".  Not a smoker, Braithwaite kept the cigarettes as a momento of his cherished time at the East End London school.

http://www.starstills.com/ss2294214-cast-to-sir-with-love-movie-photo/

Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun"

"What happens to a dream deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" (Harlem, Langston Hughes)

The home the Hansberry's purchased in the Washington Park neighbourhood of Chicago circa 1937 courtesy http://www.broadway.com/buzz/175286/the-evolution-of-a-raisin-in-the-sun-from-dream-deferred-to-broadway-masterpiece/.

Playwright Lorraine Hansberry, the daughter of a teacher and real estate broker, was born in Chicago.  Her parents purchased a house in the upper middle class, all-white neighbourhood of Washington Park.  Because they were black, Lorraine described their reception as "hellishly hostile".  Most people would have moved out, but the Hansberry's dug their heels in and refused to budge.  Three years later, in the case of Hansberry vs. Lee, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Hansberry's could not stay in Washington Park.  However, it was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled that the Hansberry's could stay.

In 1951, Lorraine came upon a poem written by Langston Hughes with the lines:  "What happens to a dream deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"  She used the line as a title for her play, based on a black family who buys a house in an all white neighbourhood and is pressured to leave. The road to success was not easy:  it took over a year for the producer to raise enough funds to bring the play to Broadway.  But on March 11, 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, starring Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger and Ruby Dee as his wife and Claudia McNeil as his mother, Lena.  It enjoyed a successful run of 530 performances.

"A Raisin in the Sun" explored territory never before explored on the American stage.  It was the first play to be written by a black female to be performed on Broadway.  Lorraine Hansberry did not think that it would be a success, given that it "introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences."  However, the people kept buying tickets; it ran for 530 performances.  After closing, Lorraine Hansberry's play was adapted for the big screen in 1961, also starring Sidney Poitier.  

http://www.meetup.com/lets-all-go-2-the-movies/events/105887922/