The aftermath of the Civil War accelerated the process of a national African-American identity formation.[75] Some civil rights activists, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, disagree that identity was achieved after the Civil War.[76] African Americans in the post-civil war era were faced with many rules and regulations that, even though they were "free", prevented them from living with the same amount of freedom as white citizens had.[77] Tens of thousands of Black northerners left homes and careers and also migrated to the defeated South, building schools, printing newspapers, and opening businesses.