2014 Reprint of 1920 Edition. Written during a turning point in American history, Darkwater is a collection of poems, essays and autobiographical stories demanding political and social reform for African Americans. Expanding upon topics first discussed in The Souls of Black Folk , it addresses racial problems and social injustices worldwide. Darkwater has come to be recognized as one of the most lyrical and moving works in the Du Bois canon, a work of great poetic as well as scholarly and political merit.