BEHOLD A CRY

A convincing portrait of Negroes against the rising racial and labor unrest of 1918, this however will not carry against the stronger, sharper writing of Richard Wright, of Ann Petry -- and is at best only mildly moving. Here is the story of Ed Tyler, who liked high living and fancy women, and found them both in Chicago with Mamie. To avoid the draft, however, he brings his family up from the south, Phom with her simple, country ways, Dan and Son who are just learning that black is black and white is white. Moving them in to Mamie's apartment, Phom eventually makes Ed choose between Mamie and his family, gets him to move them to their own house. There Ed is restless, increasing in his bitterness against the whites, against the unions, until, after bringing a friend and his wife, Cleo, to live with them, he runs away with Cleo... The urbanization of the Negro, the incipient insistence on equal rights, patterning a personal story of moderate interest.