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So I went and saw it last night on Broadway.
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It is fascinating. Act 1 is set in 1959 (year of my birth) when a black family moves into a white neighborhood. This was a big, weird deal in the olden days. Not to be politically incorrect (it was a different time), my grandparents lived in Inglewood which was one of the middle class suburbs that changed due to the dynamics of the time. A few black families moved in, then all the white families moved out. My grandparents stayed for a long time, but the housing prices went way down (I said it was a long time ago).
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In Claybourne Park, some of the white neighbors try to convince the family to stay - or at least sell to a group of them that have rallied to purchase the house so a black family can't move in.
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Act 2 is set in the same house, in the same neighborhood - 50 years later. In the interim, the neighborhood has become African American - and inner city decline has taken over. Crime has gone up as the city center decayed. But now, 2009, gentrification has come up and a yuppie couple is buying the house. Buying and rebuilding a mini-McMansion. Now, the African American neighborhood association wants to keep the character of the neighborhood and not drive out everyone with crazy prices.
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Of course, this is just the frame the story sits on. It is about community and family and ostracism. Great show - and surprisingly funny, and I will review it later.