Chapter 9, "Social Science, Ambition, and Tuskegee" Summary and Analysis

During 1897 the Du Bois family spends Christmas in the men's dormitories at Atlanta University. Nina seems happy with their home and their healthy, active son, Burghardt. Atlanta University teaches many mixed race students but has started to be passed over by white students, or "boycotted" as Lewis says. As soon as black students leave campus they find themselves in a very different and dangerous world of racism and segregation. Just at the time Du Bois comes to work at Atlanta University the Georgia legislature has cut funding to the school in order to punish the college for allowing race mixing in their dining hall says Lewis.

Du Bois stays out of the city of Atlanta and focuses on his work. He recalls this period of his life as a...