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.