He endured racism at Haverford, living at home as a freshman because white students refused to room with him.

While in Italy, he appeared as an extra in the 1959 film Ben-Hur, playing a Roman soldier opposite actor Charlton Heston.

Returning stateside in 1959, Moses completed a master's degree in fine arts at Harvard University and worked as a teaching fellow while pursuing his PhD.

He caused a stir when he refused to teach The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because of the novel's treatment of race, which he saw as diminishing to Black people.

[2] In December 1963, Arts et Métiers Graphiques invited Moses to publish a major catalogue raisonné of Edgar Degas.

[2] Paul and Alice's son, Michael Moses, born in 1963, attended Whittier College and taught physical education at the Laboratory Schools for over 30 years.

[5] Moses's research influenced Jean Adhémar's and Françoise Cachin’s Degas: The Complete Etchings, Lithographs and Monotypes, published in French in 1973 and in English a year later.

Michael Moses and University of Chicago graduate student Stephanie Strother curated the exhibit at the Regenstein Library.