W.E.B. Du Bois and the Poetry of Niagara Falls

Born in 1868, W.E.B. Du Bois was a college professor, an author and poet, a civil rights activist, and one of the foremost Black intellectuals of his time. Around 1911, he wrote a letter to his eleven-year-old daughter, Yolande, in which he extolled the majesty of Niagara Falls. 

He began with the Niagara River:

“Dear Yolande – 

Of the things, my little girl must see, one of the wonderfulest is Niagara. It lies in the North where a river wandering swiftly through low meadows parts in two and each part comes in a great cliff where it must leap. The smaller part hurries on before with waters that hesitate, cream and curdle and at last in one small and almost innocent silence leap sheer. They grow white with fear, they tremble […] as they fall and then as they strike on the cruel rocks […] below, the smoke and sweat of their pain rolls up and their voice comes in a great quiet roar which for want of words we must call mighty.”

Du Bois then tells Yolande to “hurry across the iron bridge into Canada and [sit] in the park quietly. Then raise your brown eyes to the heavens - they will best be blue and grey with cloud flecks; below will lie trees and leaves, green crimson-tinged [….]. In front is the wide and hurrying river, rainbow tinted and exhausted, while between sky and river roars the greater Niagara.”

His letter, like the scene he is describing, reaches its climax:

“This fall is grander and mightier. Its roar is as a silence beneath the noise of the other. Far up the river the waters begin to fret and fume and seek escape - they churn and rush and whirl - they sense the awful cataclysm and the terror of it is on them.

Suddenly beneath them there is nothing - the foundations of earth give way; in one great green and weltering mass the waters drop. For a mad moment they hang between heaven and earth and about the central abyss throw great appealing arms. The thunder of the End is in their ears.  They plunge.

But upon the awful mystery of that inner, deeper, wilder fall no human eye may look. Its frightened bloodless face is veiled. Vast sheets of mist roll up and with wild white hands screen this sanctuary of Almighty God, while this, the pale waters churning and foaming shines His shadow below in silent rainbows.” 

He signed the letter “Lovingly Yours, WEBD.”



Whether tourists visit the American or Canadian side of Niagara Falls, they can still take in these same breathtaking views over 100 years later. 

Hope L. Russell, Ph.D.