Morton was the son of George and Elizabeth Morton, longtime Hamilton residents. The Morton family had a history of civil rights work in the community. In 1871, George Morton Sr. was recorded appearing with Mr. James L. Lightfoot before the city of Hamilton’s Market Fire and Police Committee to petition for the hiring of Black Hamiltonians in public jobs. His son, George Morton Jr. was raised in Hamilton, both on the Mountain and downtown.  

Morton Jr. was active in the Mount Brydges Lodge of Oddfellows of Hamilton, and in 1893 was elected grand secretary of District Lodge No. 28 of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows of Canada. He was also a member of the Brother Union Society, a fraternal and social organization which formed in 1862. The Brother Union Society offered support to Black Hamiltonians, such as paying for funerals and offering financial assistance to those in need.

Morton also continued his family’s history of civil rights work, raising the issue of no Black Hamiltonians employed in public jobs with the city multiple times in the 1880s and early 1890s. After multiple campaigns on behalf of his community, Morton was finally appointed to the position of letter carrier in 1891. However, he was likely the only Black letter carrier in the city for decades. Historian Adrienne Shadd reports that by 1910 there were only two reported Black letter carriers in the city and no Black firemen or policemen. The photograph above of the Hamilton Letter Carriers in 1908 confirms Shadd’s statement. Morton and his colleague are the only two Black letter carriers pictured.

Morton would continue to work as a letter carrier for 36 years and served as the treasurer for the Letter Carriers’ Association for 21 years. When free home delivery began in Canada in 1874, letter carriers became a quickly growing occupation in the last decades of the 19th century. In 1891, the year Morton was hired, letter carriers in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Québec, Saint John, Winnipeg, and Kingston united as the Federated Association of Letter Carriers (FALC). Though the FALC initially started as a benevolent society, the issue of wages, leave, and uniforms became official agenda items in meetings by 1899.

The FALC launched its first strike in 1918. The Canadian Museum of History notes that “like postal workers generally, letter carriers had no well-defined and consistent work schedule. On occasion, they had to adjust to unforeseen situations such as late arrival at the station by the train carrying mail, or having to work Christmas Day without knowing when the day would end! Not only was their schedule flexible, but their pay was nothing to boast about. In 1902, the minimum wage for a letter carrier was $1.25 per day, and in 1913, $3.00 a day.”

In addition to his advocacy for local public employment of black Hamiltonians, Morton also publicly petitioned Sir Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense, why members of the Black community were being turned away when trying to enlist for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. In a letter dated September 7, 1915 Morton writes:

“The feeling prevails that in this so-called Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave that there should be no color lines drawn or discrimination made. As humble, but as loyal subjects of the King, trying to work out their own destiny, they think they should be permitted in common with other people to perform their part and do their share in this great conflict.”

Though Black Canadians were eventually allowed to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, most remained segregated in labour units and only a few participated in combat roles. Morton’s civil rights work challenged racist hiring policies in military and public service jobs at municipal and national levels in Canada.