The Only African American Whose Signature Has Ever Been On The Country’s Money

Take a close look at Azie Taylor Morton’s name. Perhaps, you recognize it. For a span of 20 years between the late 1970s and close to 2000, money in United States bore her signature.

Morton remains the only African American to ever serve as the Treasurer of the United States. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the position. 

Taylor was born in Dale, Texas, on Feb. 1, 1936. Her hometown offered few opportunities, but she was not deterred. Her mother was deaf and mute, and Taylor attended the Texas School for the Blind, Deaf and Orphan even though was not blind or deaf. She enrolled at the school because there was not one for African American teenagers. She graduated at the top of the class when she was 16.

In 1952 Taylor enrolled at Hutson-Tillotson University which was an all-Black school in Austin, Texas. After graduation, she attempted to attend graduate school at the University of Texas but was denied acceptance on the basis of “insufficient undergraduate courses.”

Taylor taught at a school for delinquent girls until she was hired as the assistant to the president of Hutson-Tillotson. After working at the university for a few months, she joined the Texas AFL-CIO as an employee. President John F. Kennedy invited her to work on the  Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961. 

Taylor’s historic career achievement came in 1977 when she accepted President Jimmy Carter’s invitation to serve as the nation’s 36th treasurer. She served for four years.

After her work in Washington, D.C., Taylor returned to Texas. In 2003 she suffered a massive stroke at her home and died the following day. She was a pioneer, a wife and the mother of two daughters.