In 1959 Frank Morris became the first African-American senior manager of a state agency in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts when he was appointed to the position of director of the State Housing Board. Starting as a junior planner with the Board in 1948, Frank Morris had one of the longest careers - 38 years - of any Black in state government when he retired in 1986 as Special Counsel to the Executive Office of Communities and Development which grew out of the State Housing Board.