But the color of his skin shut the doors so tight that he could not even peep in.
The white people would not employ him in these positions, and the colored people did not have any enterprises in which they could employ him.

It is true that such positions as street laborer, hod-carrier, cart driver, factory hand, railroad hand, were open to him; but such menial tasks were uncongenial to a man of his education and polish.
And, again, society positively forbade him doing such labor.

If a man of education among the colored people did such manual labor, he was looked upon as an eternal disgrace to the race.

He was looked upon as throwing his education away and lowering its value in the eyes of the children who were to come after him.
So, here was proud, brilliant Belton, the husband of a woman whom he fairly worshipped, surrounded in a manner that precluded his earning a livelihood for her.

This set Belton to studying the labor situation and the race question from this point of view.