Alexandria

This is the rural area outside of Fisk University where Willie goes to support himself with a teaching job during the summer. Meeting less educated, poorer rural workers from a part of the country where more racial prejudice exists influences Du Bois future writings. It is also where he has his first sexual experience with a woman.

Atlanta University

This remarkable 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...