In early August 1949, while serving as Commissioner of Public Improvements, Morgan called the racial grounds of the city's zoning ordinance unconstitutional.
Morgan was supported by city mayor W. Cooper Green, but that same month, Commissioner of Public Safety T. Eugene Connor rewrote the ordinance to ensure housing segregation could continue.
[3]: 166 Morgan was also a key player in a number of issues related to the relationship between the city's black population and the police.
In 1954, two Birmingham police officers beat a black man, Charles Patrick, after he was arrested following a parking conflict with a white woman.
[4] Morgan was mayor when Fred Shuttlesworth led a 1955 campaign to get the city to hire more black officers.