A Southern sheriff tells Brando's character about a sign in the small town that reads, "Nigger, don't let the sun go down on you in this county."[2] The same sign is shown in Tennessee Williams's play Orpheus Descending, upon which the film is based.[31] In her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), poet Maya Angelou describes Mississippi as inhospitable to African Americans after dark: "Don't let the sun set on you here nigger, Mississippi."[32] Oprah Winfrey visited Forsyth County, Georgia, on a 1987 episode of her television show.