Morgan, one of the few white members of the Alabama Human Relations Council, wrote a blistering letter in the December 12, 1955, Montgomery Advertiser in support of the city bus boycott. This and subsequent letters “brought down upon her a prolonged harassment by young people who threw rocks through her windows, insulted her on the streets, and played tricks on her in the library,” wrote Pulitzer Prize–winning author Taylor Branch in Parting the Waters. Morgan’s friends and relatives distanced themselves from her and many local residents showed their displeasure by returning their library cards.
Morgan’s other letters to papers censured the expulsion of Autherine Lucy from the University of Alabama after she integrated the school in 1956, and praised Tuscaloosa News publisher Buford Boone in 1957 for criticizing the White Citizens Council.
When funding for the city library was set to be reduced by a amount equal to her salary, author Mary Stanton said in the March 4 Advertiser, Morgan knew that her days as an employee were numbered. At the age of 42, Morgan died from an overdose of sleeping pills on July 16, 1957—one day after resigning from her library position. “I think she had lost everything that meant anything to her,” noted Stanton, who is writing a book about Morgan’s life and nominated her for the induction. “She even lost the respect of her mother.”
Posted March 4, 2005.