Dubois is a very important civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, and journalist that created a change in history. Dubois was born and raised in Massachusetts, where racism was far less prevalent than the South. He went to college in Nashville, Tennessee at Fisk University where he became the first African American to earn a doctorate degree. He first experienced southern racism (which is much worse) in which Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and bigotry was popular in that area. He created many different essays, outlying the change that is needed in the United States at the time regarding African Americans and the rest of society. This created a lot of controversy, however Dubois kept writing his beliefs and thoughts down. One specific trial that Dubois had to endure, was that when he wrote for the American Historical Review, he asked the editor to capitalize the word Negro, and the author did not. Dubois endured these racial problems, but still continued to talk about the problems in America and inspired action. Information taken from the NAACP website, which is what Dubois helped to create.