M.B.Tolson at the Biltmore in New York
(see program entry below)

No Exit
by
Jean-Paul Sartre

Melvin B. Tolson, Director

May 27, 1955

Langston University Stagebill

from the Melvin B. Tolson Papers
at the Library of Congress Washington D.C.

 Melvin B. Tolson 1898-1966: Plain Talk and Poetic Prophecy (p.220)

   Some years later Tolson told Joy Flasch that Wright pointed out a cafe where Jean Paul Sartre hung out, leading Tolson to describe the Dust Bowl Players' production of NO EXIT.  Wright, according to Tolson, was incredulous that a Negro college would produce such a play.  Tolson responded, "It was staged at Princeton.  And if it was good enough for those white students, it's good enough for black students.  After all, I went to a Little Ivy college."

   To Tolson's mention of Sartre's message that "Hell is other people," Wright was reported to have laughed and countered, "Hell is Mississippi."