In 1898, Morrison participated in the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, a violent coup d'état by a group of white supremacists.

[1] The governor of North Carolina, Daniel Lindsay Russell, was forced to flee from Wilmington to Raleigh.

[3] With the backing of Sen. Furnifold Simmons and the help of race-baiting tactics employed by A. D. Watts, Morrison defeated O. Max Gardner in the 1920 Democratic primary for governor.

Morrison also presided over various reforms[6][7][8] and pushed for increased funds for public education, while also battling the teaching of the theory of evolution.

His first wife, Lottie May Tomlinson, gave birth to four children but only one, Angelia Lawrance Morrison, survived infancy.

[15] A ten-story residence hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is named in Morrison's honor.