Emma Hamilton Dancing

Born in 1906 in Hartford, Connecticut, Raymond Augustus Morris attended the Julius Hartt School of Music in Hartford before enrolling at Yale. He earned his bachelor of music degree from Yale in 1935. Next he studied at the Eastman School of Music, completing a master's degree in music in 1939. From 1936 to 1943, Morris served as dean of the School of Music of Bishop College. From there he went to the North Carolina College for Negroes (today North Carolina Central University), where he was the head of the department of music from 1943 until his death in 1944.

Morris married Sarah Estelle Waller, a graduate of the Hartford Art School, in 1936. He was a member of the Talcott Street Congregational Church in Hartford.