Robert L. Harris of Cornell University described it as "one of the few documents that provide insight into the early growth of the field of Afro-American history and the life of Woodson".
[1] Greene, at the time a graduate student at Columbia University, worked for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), established by Carter G.
[11] Greene wrote in his diary every night during his day work at the ANSLH, recording his observations of the black community of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore prior to the Great Depression.
[4] Dillon wrote that Greene was not sympathetic towards religion and had conservative beliefs and skeptical feelings towards religious preachers, and therefore the diary was filtered through this mindset.
[2] Bruce Collins of the University of Buckingham stated that according to the diary, the people in Greene's generation were opposed to black churches and therefore were unable to make much progress in their communities at the time; Collins also stated that "The diary offers ample testimony to a belief in the need to establish a full and true history of American blacks.
"[16] Ferrell wrote that the book was a discussion of current events, attitudes, and problems in the contemporary African-American community in addition to, as Greene had described it, "a melange of happenings and opinions" about "a potpourri of the economic, social, and political conditions under which Negroes lived in their communities"; Ferrell argued that the book met Greene's definition and that its value resides in that.