"[3] In 1933, at the age of 29 he was appointed president of Talladega College,[1] and authored research papers on the subject of civil rights and race relations in higher education.

He enrolled at Columbia University and wrote a thesis under the supervision of William H. Kilpatrick on the role of historically black colleges in undermining racial segregation.

In 1944, he was hired as an instructor of Christian ethics at the Pacific School of Religion, and briefly served as an Assistant Commissioner of Education under President Harry S. Truman.

In the book he wrote that “Our racial caste system has its historical roots in slavery, but thrusts its contemporary tentacles into every crevice and cranny of the social structure throughout the nation.

[1] He left the position in 1961 to become the founding chancellor of the California State University system, but after red-baiting attacks, he returned to CCNY after only nine months.