After becoming the first African-American to graduate from George Peabody College for Teachers, she went on to work as a librarian and professor in both education and library science.
Her human rights activism and work preserving African American history has earned her recognition by a number of organizations in Tennessee.
[4] Morton-Young co-chaired the Greensboro Coalition for Unity & Justice, a group of community activists that held demonstrations against the Ku Klux Klan in 1987.
[5] As chairperson of the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, she initiated hearings on pay equity for women and minorities and school placement of students.
[1][6] During her twenty years on that committee she also contributed to a United States Department of Labor study on migrant workers.