After completing his master's, Haynes served as secretary to the Colored Men's Department of the International Committee of the
YMCA. During this period, he visited historically Black colleges, which had primarily been founded in the southern states since the Civil War. He worked to encourage students in academic success and helped the colleges to set high academic standards, in a period in which there was tension in African-American goals for seeking vocational or classical academic education. From his interest in education, Haynes established the
Association of Negro Colleges and Secondary Schools, serving as secretary of that organization from 1910 to 1918. With Wilson, Haynes developed a three-part program: (1) organizing inter-racial committees of Negroes and whites from local bodies to promote mutual understanding and deal with problems of discrimination; (2) mounting a national publicity campaign to promote racial harmony and cooperation with the department's war effort; and (3) developing a competent staff of Negro professionals to operate the Division. Haynes operated through state and local organizations, concentrating in the South, Northeast and Midwest, the major areas affected by the Great Migration, where rapid social change was occurring in major cities. A total of 11 states had program committees by November 1918. They investigated "conditions of Negro workers, educated Negroes and whites on the need for good race relations, helped in job placements, alleviating discrimination and race friction, and developing recommendations for federal action." After the war, there was considerable social tension as returning veterans of all races tried to find work, and black veterans tried to gain better treatment after their war service. During the
Red Summer of 1919, racial riots of whites against blacks broke out in numerous industrial cities during these tensions and economic strife. At that time, the Democratic-dominated Congress suspended funding for Haynes' division. Even with such opposition, Haynes proposed a major government program to help the nation's working Negroes; his vision would not be realized for many years, but he was a trailblazer. As part of the unsuccessful campaign to get Congress to pass the
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, Haynes prepared and submitted to Congress in 1919 a 5-part report, "Why Congress Should Investigate Race Riots and Lynchings."{{cite news Haynes served as the executive secretary of the Department of Race Relations of the
Federal Council of Churches from 1921 to 1947. After retiring from Fisk, Haynes taught at
City College of New York from 1950 to 1959. He continued to be affiliated with the
YMCA, surveying its work in
South Africa in 1930 (before
apartheid was legally established), and in other African nations in 1947. Haynes was also a regional consultant for the YMCA in South Africa from 1942 to 1955. Haynes died in the
King County Hospital in
Brooklyn after a brief illness on January 8, 1960. ==Legacy and honors==