"Black Thunder" received many extraordinary reviews by both African-American and mainstream journals, for example, the "Saturday Review of Literature". Despite these rave reviews, Bontemps did not earn enough from sales of the novel to support his family in Chicago, where he had moved shortly before he published the novel. He briefly taught in Chicago at the Shiloh Academy but did not stay long, leaving for a job with the WPA Illinois Writers' Project. The WPA had writers working on histories of states and major cities. In 1938, following the publication of children's book "Sad-Faced Boy" (1937), Bontemps was granted a Rosenwald fellowship to work on his novel, "Drums at Dusk" (1939). This was based on Toussaint L’Ouverture's slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue (which became the independent republic of Haiti). This book was more widely recognized than his other novels. Some critics viewed the plot as overdramatic, while others commended its characterizations.