Born in 1913, Morton B. King was a native of Shelbyville, Tennessee. In his youth, he attended the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. King received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Vanderbilt University in 1934, and in 1936, he received his Master of Arts in Sociology from the same institution. During his tenure at Vanderbilt, King associated with the Agrarians and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Kappa Delta. A devout Methodist, King was also involved with the Student Christian Movement, which strove to achieve racial justice.

Entering the work force during the Depression, King chose to become a relief worker, serving as a caseworker with the Davidson County (TN) Welfare Commission. A Julius Rosenwald fellow from 1938-1939, King completed his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1940. He went on to complete post-doctoral work at the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan.

King joined the University of Mississippi faculty in 1939 as an assistant professor of sociology. During his brief first tenure at the University, King was instrumental in the implementation of Religious Emphasis Week, a campus-wide religious emphasis program that consisted of convocation addresses, panel forums, classroom lectures, addresses to faculty luncheons, and discussion groups in student residence halls. In January 1941, King resigned from his position at the University of Mississippi to join the faculty of Mississippi State University as associate professor of sociology.

King answered his country's call to service in World War II in 1943. A second lieutenant in the Army, King served from 1943-1946 as a classification specialist at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

In 1946, King returned to the faculty of the University of Mississippi to serve as head of the sociology department. In 1955, King resigned from his position in protest of Chancellor J.D. Williams's decision to cancel the invitation of the Reverend Alvin Kershaw, an Episcopal priest from Ohio who supported the NAACP, to speak during Religious Emphasis Week. The episode sparked national attention to Mississippi's position in regard to school integration and produced a substantial dialogue in local, state, and national press about freedom of speech and religion as well as integration and civil rights.

In the wake of the Kershaw episode, King struggled for two years to find a permanent position in the academic sector. From 1956-1957, he served a one-year appointment in the sociology department at Southern Methodist University. In 1957, Northwestern University invited him to serve for a year as a visiting professor of sociology. King received an invitation to join the faculty of Southern Methodist University as a tenure-track professor in 1958.

At Southern Methodist University, King served as chairman of the sociology department from 1961-1964 and 1970-1972. From 1970-1972, he served as acting chairman.

Over the course of his career, King published a number of studies, including Social Effects of Governmental Land Purchase (1943), Mississippi's People (1950, 1955), Mississippi's Life Tables, 1950-1951, By Sex Race, and Residence (1954), Dallas Population Handbook, 1960 (1962), Measuring Religious Dimensions: Studies of Congregational Involvement (1972), New Witnesses: United Methodist Clergywomen (1980), Clergywomen—Problems and Satisfactions (1985), and Sheltered By God's Love: 52 Bible Lessons for Senior Adults (1997). King's professional memberships included the American, Rural, and Southern Sociological Societies and the American Association of University Professors.

King retired from Southern Methodist University in 1979, maintaining the honored position of Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He and his wife Joan reside in Georgetown, Texas.

This collection documents Morton King's resignation from The University of Mississippi in 1955 as a protest of Chancellor J.D. Willilams's decision to cancel the invitation of the Reverend Alvin Kershaw, an Episcopal priest from Ohio who supported the NAACP. Kershaw had been scheduled to speak during Religious Emphasis Week at the university. The collection contains official papers, correspondence, notes, and newspaper clippings documenting King's dispute with Williams and the national attention that it attracted from 1955 to 1956. Included in the collection are letters, cards, and telegrams received by King in response to his resignation from professors, clergy, Methodist congregants, and others from across the country. A note from Eleanor Roosevelt and copies of correspondence with Robert Penn Warren are part of this correspondence. In addition, the collection includes an autobiographical overview written by King in 1993, entitled "Background Recollections, Religious Emphasis Week & the Kershaw Affair."

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