An adequate look at the 100 years after the American Civil War. Written in 1961 this work is a little dated. Bontemps was somewhat dismissive of MLK but laudatory of Ralph Bunche. The last 50 years have reversed that.

He spent a great deal of time on the DuBois-Washington controversy. He gets beyond the surface of the controversy between the two. He also notes how the views of each changed over the years, especially noting BTW's realization that segregation was unacceptable near the end of his life. Bontemps had previously criticized BTW for giving the SCOTUS the notion about separate-but-equal doctrine that found expression in the 1896 Plessy decision. BTW had ostensibly endorse separate-but-equal the previous year with his so-call Atlanta Compromise.

Bontemps also explored (much more briefly) the Harlem Renaissance (of which he was a part). It would have been nice to see a more lengthy examination of the renaissance. Also missing from the discussion on the 1920s was a discussion (or even mention) of Marcus Garvey. Granted, Garvey was not an American, but he was a profound figure.

Bontemps seems somewhat contemptuous MLK and Thurgood Marshall. Written on the eve of the explosion of the civil rights movement (after Brown, Montgomery, and Little Rock, but before sit-ins, freedom rides, the March on Washington, and freedom summer), the modern reader gains an insight into the thinking of African Americans in the early 1960s.

While Bontemps is a good writer, he is not (nor did he claim to be) a historian, he had no footnotes. The extensive use of quotes would have been enhanced with sourcing. The bibliography is nice, but a bit dated. ( )