Juliette Hampton Morgan

On March 3, 2005, Juliette Hampton Morgan was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. Later that year, the Montgomery City Council voted to rename the main public library The Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library.

In January, 1957, Buford Boone, editor of the Tuscaloosa News, came to Montgomery. There he spoke out against racial injustice and publicly blamed the White Citizens' Council for the increase in violence seen in the community over the past year. Morgan later wrote a letter of private praise directly to Boone where she stated:

Boone wanted to publish Morgan’s letter in the newspaper but she refused, citing her agreement with the library to not publish any more letters. Boone insisted, telling her that publicly stating her views would inspire others. Morgan relented and on January 14, 1957 the Tuscaloosa News printed her letter.

On July 15, her mother called the library to say that Morgan could no longer work and had decided to resign. On the morning of July 17, 1957, Morgan’s mother found her daughter dead; next to her lay an empty bottle of sleeping pills. She had written a suicide letter that said "I am not going to cause any more trouble to anybody." The Montgomery Advertiser reported that she had "died...at her home", without mentioning the suicide; the other local paper, the Alabama Journal, noted she had died "after a short illness".

Eventually, Morgan could no longer remain silent and resumed her letter writing. In 1956, Morgan wrote to newspapers strongly disapproving of the expulsion of University of Alabama student Autherine Lucy, the first black student to attend the university.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat and move to the back of a Montgomery city bus. Eleven days later, on December 12, 1955, Morgan wrote another letter to the editor of the Montgomery Advertiser in support of Ms. Parks and the boycott that followed. She stated in her letter:

After graduation, Morgan returned to Montgomery to become a public school teacher at her former high school. In 1942 she became a reference librarian in Montgomery's Carnegie Library where she was eventually promoted to the director of research at the Montgomery Public Library.

Juliette Morgan was an only child, born to Frank P. and Lila Bess Olin Morgan of Montgomery, Alabama. Her family was very prominent in the community and were seventh-generation Southerners. Among the friends of the Morgans were Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tallulah Bankhead. Morgan attended Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery. In 1934 Morgan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa with a degree in both English literature and political science. She went on to get her master's degree in English the next year.

Morgan's first public statements regarding social justice issues came in 1932 when she spoke out in defense of motherhood and special training for women such as home economics classes, and extended her support for creating a federal department of child welfare. In 1938, she wrote letters in defense of "the Southern Woman", challenging the preconceived notions of the era.

Juliette Hampton Morgan (February 21, 1914 – July 16, 1957) was a librarian and civil rights activist in Montgomery, Alabama. The only daughter from a well-to-do white family, Morgan was an early member of the community that pushed for integration. As a librarian she often spoke out against the acts of injustice she witnessed against African-Americans by writing letters to the Montgomery Advertiser, the local newspaper. She was castigated by the community for her racial views and was targeted by segregationists who broke her windows and burned a cross in her front yard. Unable to bear the strain caused by the unrelenting retaliation caused by her views, she took her own life.