What is the importance of Atlanta University in the book, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race?

Atlanta University teaches a high level of liberal arts education, and because of this white philanthropists who might otherwise give it money regard it as a threat. Du Bois teaches at Atlanta for a number of years, and here he helps the college publish a series of deeply important long-term studies on the African American experience. The campus grounds are attractive and well groomed, but just outside the campus students find themselves in slums. The city of Atlanta itself is quite dangerous for African Americans, and it erupts in violence with the lynching and burning of Sam Hose. Du Bois must actually sit on his front steps and guard his family with a shotgun during the altercation.