Through his contributions and efforts in the Watts Writers’ Workshop he raised awareness in the United States' racial conflict during the 1960s.
Leaving the East for California with his family in 1962, he found a position as a janitor at the Los Angeles City Hall, another job that left his mind free for reading and writing.
"The individual words of the writers in the Workshop changed the perception of post-1965 Watts from the National Guard—studded streets to an active arena of spiritual and cultural struggle".
[5] As a result, "NBC TV devoted an hour of prime time to present 'The Angry Voices of Watts’ on August 16, 1966'".
[6] Among the writers, Harry Dolan made a name for himself with his plays, specifically his teleplay Losers and Weepers,[7] which was originally written for Mystery Digest and had a cast of white characters and a plot "about a poor family, where the young boy decided to go for the money.
[8] Criticism from Workshop participants made Dolan change the plot to one depicting the "frustrations and impotence of a Negro family's life in an urban ghetto".