Melvin B. Tolson

Tolson's reputation outside Marshall rests on his poetry. The Handbook of Texas says the Atlantic Monthly published his prize-winning poem Dark Symphony in September 1941 and that his first collection, Rendezvous with America, appeared in 1944. After he left Wiley for Langston University in 1947, Liberia's president, William V. S. Tubman, named him poet laureate of Liberia for its centennial, and Libretto for the Republic of Liberia followed in 1953. The Curator appeared in 1965, and on May 25, 1966, he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters poetry award.

What the plaque says

Melvin B. Tolson Poet, professor, and playwright, Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was born on February 6, 1898 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Rev. Alonzo, a Methodist minister, and Lera Ann (Hurt) Tolson. Melvin graduated high school in 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri and then earned a Bachelor's degree in English in 1923 from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the nation's first Black college. Tolson began his teaching career in 1924 at Wiley College in Marshall, where he remained until 1947. While at Wiley College, Tolson taught English and Speech, created an award-winning debate team, co-founded the Intercollegiate Southern Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, directed the theater club and coached junior varsity football. The debate team, the Wiley Forensic Society, packed venues and won many high-profile debates, including the 1933 defeat of England's Oxford University and the 1935 defeat of the University of Southern California, the year's national champions. Several of Tolson's students became influential civil rights activists, including James L. Farmer, Jr., Fred Lewis and Heman Sweatt. Tolson's passion and eloquence transferred to his own writings. From 1937 to 1944, Tolson wrote a regular column in The Washington Tribune called "Caviar and Cabbages," a series largely based on African American life. Tolson left Wiley College for Langston University in Oklahoma in 1947. His poetry and writings continued to receive acclaim and he served as Mayor of Langston from 1954 to 1962. Tolson died on August 29, 1966, but will forever be remembered as an incredible orator, writer and educator who inspired others to prevail. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 0.8 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 1.2 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 15 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• Matthew W. Dogan, Sr. — steps away
• Wiley College — steps away
• James Leonard Farmer, Sr. — steps away
• H. B. Pemberton — steps away