Upon his graduation from Peabody, he taught high school English at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville for four years, and he became acquainted with and joined the National Federation of the Blind during that time. He moved to Oakland, California in 1953 and joined the faculty of the newly established California Orientation Center for Blind Adults. In that same year (1953), he also became fully active in the "organized blind movement" and became a noted civil rights leader in earnest for the remainder of his life.