[citation needed] Charles and two of his brothers attended the African Free School in New York; among their classmates were Henry Highland Garnet, George T. Downing, and Ira Aldridge.

He next appears in 1849 as a faculty member, giving an inaugural address, at the New York Central College, an integrated institution founded by members of the American Baptist Free Mission Society in McGraw, New York (then called McGrawville, not to be confused with the current McGrawville).

[6] He was described as of "fair education and superior intelligence, 'complexion very light, beautiful black curly hair and a magnificent moustache'.

Reason's work helped to secure the right of blacks accused of being runaway slaves to a jury trial.

[10] In 1847, Reason, along with Charles Bennett Ray, founded the New York-based Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children.

[6] He was described in a newspaper as "an accomplished and attractive man, and...a fine and ripe scholar, ...highly popular with the students, and with the citizens of McGrawville.

Seniors expected their grades to appear in the most widely circulated paper in the U.S. black communities: the A.M.E.'s Christian Recorder.

[12] Reason returned to New York, where he served for decades in public education as a teacher, administrator, and reformer.

In the presidential election of 1884 he was a candidate for the Electoral College, at the moment a politically important position, on the Republican ticket.

Although his two strokes (one in 1885 and one in 1890) left him physically incapacitated, Reason continued at his post until he retired, some five months before his death.

They had no children, although she had a daughter from her previous marriage to John Lucien Esteve (1809–1852), a French West Indian confectioner, restaurateur, and caterer in New York City.