And more than that, he was not bothering his brain thinking about the Negro.

He felt that the Negro was easily ruled and was not an object for serious thought.

The barbers, the nurses, cooks and washerwomen, the police column of the newspapers, comic stories and minstrels were the sources through which the white people gained their conception of the Negro.

But the real controling power of the race that was shaping its life and thought and preparing the race for action, was unnoticed and in fact unseen by them.
The element most bitterly antagonistic to the whites avoided them, through intense hatred; and the whites never dreamed of this powerful inner circle that was gradually but persistently working its way in every direction, solidifying the race for the momentous conflict of securing all the rights due them according to the will of their heavenly Father.
Belton also stumbled upon another misconception, which caused him eventually to lose his job as nurse.

The young men in the families in which Belton worked seemed to have a poor opinion of the virtue of colored women.