Arriving at Liberty Paints, the narrator is greeted by a large electric sign that reads "Keep America Pure with Liberty Paints." After a brief interview with the personnel manager, he is assigned to work for a Mr. Kimbro, referred to by his employees as "the colonel" and "slave driver." As an office boy escorts him to Kimbro's office, located in a building with a pure white hall, the narrator learns that the factory makes paint for the government and that he is one of six "colored college boys" hired to replace union workers out on strike.
This ominous overview of the narrator's work environment foreshadows the disastrous events of the rest of his day, which turns into a virtual nightmare as the narrator has conflicts with both Kimbro and his second supervisor, Lucius Brockway, a black man who maintains the factory's boilers in the basement. A long-time employee of Liberty Paints, Brockway helped create the company's slogan, "If It's Optic White, It's the Right White." The narrator's confrontation with Brockway escalates into a physical fight, during which the narrator knocks out the old man's false teeth. To retaliate, Brockway rigs the boilers to explode, sending the narrator to the factory hospital.
