[5] One of the main projects he worked on with CBS was a short radio-drama series, featuring Ken Nordine as the host.
[3] Barnes' works frequently starred notable actors such as Judi Dench, Douglass Campbell, Richard Kiley, as well as Frances Sternhagen.
[3] Educational films were typically used to ignite classroom discussions after the screening, that meant that the context, history, and complete story had to be told in a short period of time.
[1] In 1952 he embarked on his first project with EB Films, with Gordon Weisenborn as director and Barnes as writer and producer.
[7] Barnes fought against institutional censorship in southern schools which helped expand production and distribution of integrated educational films.
[1][8] Despite what Oscar nominations may allude to, those filmmakers who produced educational films made very little and relied on others to finance them so that they could continue with this career.
[1] Barnes continued to produce and direct iconic literary adaptations like Macbeth: The Politics of Power (1964) as well as more politically oriented works such as Equality under the Law: The Lost Generation of Prince Edward County (1966) and People along the Mississippi (1951) that have interracial themes, which was influenced by his mother's racist actions towards a teenage friend of Barnes.