“Written with tense feeling and a clean bitterness.”
+ Booklist 16:233 Ap ’20
“It is a stern indictment and one to which we cannot close our ears. It is a lesson, however, that cannot be driven home by storming, no matter how righteous be the anger. The significance of ‘Darkwater’ thus lies in the spiritual history of the author and in the passages of lyrical poetic beauty where he has expressed the extremity of racial pride.” M. E. Bailey
+ − Bookm 52:304 Ja ’21 620w
“Dr DuBois is undoubtedly the foremost spokesman of today for the negro, and as such his utterances command attention. It is doubtful whether Dr DuBois is as powerful or as convincing in his latest work as in its predecessor, ‘The souls of black folk.’” W. E. W.
+ Boston Transcript p4 O 6 ’20 670w
“Whether in prose or verse, DuBois is always master of the instrument of expression. At times, as in the Litany at Atlanta, reprinted from the Independent, he rises to supreme eloquence. But his thought is not always on the same high level as his style.”
+ − Ind 102:235 My 15 ’20 200w + Lit D p86 My 1 ’20 1350w
“It is a fact that his own ability to suffer and to feel the wrongs of his race so deeply is at once his strength, the reason for his leadership, and also his chief weakness. For it carries with it a note of bitterness, tinctured with hate, and the teaching of violence which often defeats his own purpose. Doubtless, few of us with sympathies so keen, with nerves so rasped, with wounds as raw, would do better. But still, some suppression of the ego, a lesser self-consciousness, and the omission of personal bitterness at all times would carry Mr DuBois and his cause much further.” O. G. V.
+ − Nation 110:726 My 29 ’20 1150w