Langston Hughes Co-Founds Harlem Suitcase Theatre, Premieres 'Don't You Want to Be Free?'

Hughes founded the Harlem Suitcase Theatre as a radical Black community theater and opened it with his play Don't You Want to Be Free?, which ran for 135 performances — the longest run of any Harlem theatrical production to that date. The theater brought experimental, politically engaged drama to Black working-class audiences.