Irene Amos Morgan (April 9, 1917 – August 10, 2007), later known as Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, was an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

woman from

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, who was arrested in Middlesex County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, in 1944 under a state law imposing

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

in public facilities and transportation. She was traveling on an interstate bus that operated under federal law and regulations. She refused to give up her seat in what the driver said was the "white section". At the time she worked for a defense contractor on the production line for

B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in t ...

s. Morgan consulted with attorneys to appeal her conviction and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund took up her case. She was represented by William H. Hastie, the former governor of the

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

and later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and

Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...

, legal counsel of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

. Her case, '' Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia,'' , was appealed to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

. In 1946 in a landmark decision, the Court ruled that the Virginia law was

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

, as the

Commerce clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

protected interstate traffic. But neither Virginia nor other states observed the ruling and it was not enforced for decades.

Early life, education and family

Irene Morgan was born in 1917 in Baltimore. She went to local schools and was raised as a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

. Morgan married Sherwood Morgan Sr., and had a son and daughter with him. He died in 1948. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she helped the war effort by working at Glenn L. Martin, an aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor in Baltimore. She worked on the production line for the

. She later married Stanley Kirkaldy and lived with him in New York City. They ran a dry-cleaning business and a child-care center near where they lived in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. In her 60s Kirkaldy started college studies, attending St. John's University in New York City; she received her bachelor's degree when she was 68 years old. Five years later Morgan earned a master's degree in Urban Studies from Queens College.

Arrest, jail and conviction

Irene Morgan had been dealing with a recent miscarriage and was visiting her mother in

Gloucester County, Virginia Gloucester County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 38,711. Its county seat is Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia, Gloucester Courthouse. T ...

, to physically and mentally recover from the ordeal. Hoping to go back home so she could continue working on the production line for the

, Morgan boarded a

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...

to return to Baltimore. On July 16, 1944, Morgan boarded the Greyhound bus and had sat down next to another African-American woman who was carrying an infant. An African-American could not sit next to or across from a Caucasian passenger, but there were no designated "black" or "white" seats on the bus. When a white couple boarded the bus at a stop in Middlesex County, Virginia, the bus driver ordered Morgan and her seatmate to surrender their seats. Her seatmate immediately retreated to the back of the bus with her infant, but Morgan refused to give up her spot. When Morgan would not move, the bus driver got off the bus to find a sheriff. The sheriff presented Morgan with an arrest warrant, but she tore up the piece of paper and threw it out of the window of the bus. When the sheriff touched her to pull her out of her seat, she kicked him in the groin. The sheriff got off the bus and a different sheriff was sent on. "He touched me, that's when I kicked him in a very bad place. He hobbled off, and another one came on. I was going to bite him, but he looked dirty, so I clawed him instead. I ripped his shirt. We were both pulling at each other. He said he would use his nightstick. I said, 'We'll whip each other'". The second sheriff got off the bus to grab the deputy. Morgan was arrested. She had been charged with resisting arrest and violating Virginia's Jim Crow transit law. On October 18, 1944, Morgan attended her court case. She agreed to pay a $100 fine for resisting arrest but refused to plead to the segregation violation. Since Maryland did not enforce segregation for interstate travel, Virginia's Jim Crow law could possibly not apply to Morgan. Morgan's case, with the help of the NAACP, was taken to the Virginia Supreme Court. The supreme court ruled her in violation of the law. Morgan then took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won.

U.S. Supreme Court case

Her case, ''Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia'', , was argued by William H. Hastie, the former governor of the

and later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

of the

was co-counsel; he later became the first African American to serve as a justice on the

."Milestones", ''Time'', August 27, 2007, p. 23. The

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruled 6–1 in 1946 that Virginia's state law enforcing segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional. Hastie and Marshall used an innovative strategy to brief and argue the case. Instead of relying upon the

Equal Protection The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pr ...

clause of the 14th Amendment, they argued successfully that segregation on interstate travel violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. "If something happens to you which is wrong, the best thing to do is have it corrected in the best way you can," said Morgan. "The best thing for me to do was to go to the Supreme Court." In 1960, in ''

Boynton v. Virginia ''Boynton v. Virginia'', 364 U.S. 454 (1960), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the US Supreme Court.. The case overturned a Legal judgment, judgment conviction (law), convicting an African America ...

'', the Supreme Court extended the ''Morgan'' ruling to bus terminals used in interstate bus service. African Americans continued to be ejected or arrested when they tried to integrate such facilities, as Southern states refused to obey ''Morgan v. Virginia.'' They staged numerous non-violent demonstrations using interstate buses and bus terminals, such as the

Freedom Rides Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia' ...

of 1961. White Southerners attacked the Freedom Riders, attracting renewed national media attention to the South's

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...

system.

Journey of Reconciliation

Morgan's case inspired the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, during which 16 activists from the Chicago-based

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

rode on interstate buses through the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, ...

to test the enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling. The activists divided themselves between the interstate

and

Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is a public transport bus service in the United States. It operates a network of approximately 70 independent bus companies. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Tra ...

bus lines. They usually placed an interracial pair in the white-area of the bus. Other activists, disguised as ordinary passengers, rode in the racial sections "reserved" for them by segregation law. The group traveled uneventfully through Virginia, but when they reached

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, they encountered arrests and violence. By the end of the Journey, the protesters had conducted over 24 "tests," and endured 12 arrests and dangerous mob violence. In a flagrant violation of the ''Morgan'' decision, North Carolina police arrested the civil rights activist

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin ( ; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American political activist and prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Wash ...

. A jury convicted him and he was sentenced to 22 days on a chain gang for violating the state's segregation laws, although he had been riding on an interstate bus. The 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, ahead of its time in the use of tactics of nonviolent direct action, inspired the highly publicized

of 1961, also organized by CORE.

Death

Irene Morgan was a lifelong member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She died in Gloucester, Virginia on August 10, 2007, at her daughter's home, at age 90 from complications of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

. Her funeral was at Gloucester High School.

Legacy and honors

* In 1995, Robin Washington produced the documentary ''You Don't Have to Ride

!'', aired on New Hampshire Public TV. It featured Morgan Kirkaldy and survivors of the 1947 "Journey of Reconciliation." Morgan received renewed attention for her contributions. * In 2000 Morgan Kirkaldy was honored by

, during its 350th anniversary celebration. * In 2001, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

awarded her the

Presidential Citizens Medal The Presidential Citizens Medal is an award bestowed by the president of the United States. It is the second-highest civilian award in the United States and is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Established by executive order on N ...

. * In 2002, PBS featured a four-part series entitled, ''The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow''. Associated materials include an article on ''Morgan v. Virginia''."Jim Crow Stories: Richard Wormser, "'Morgan v. Virginia' (1946)"
''The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow'', 2002, PBS, accessed 5 February 2013 * In 2010, Kirkaldy was inducted into the

Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. * In 2020, Kirkaldy was included in exhibit "Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move" at the Springfield Museums, a

Smithsonian Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, education and research centers, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trus ...

affiliate, which highlighted diverse hidden figures that changed the course of history. Kirkaldy's niece Janine Fondon curated this exhibit.

Representation in other media

* Robin Washington, producer
''You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!'' (1995)
documentary, released on New Hampshire Public TV

''The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow'', 2002, PBS

References

External links

The Freedom Rider a Nation Nearly Forgot
''The Washington Post''

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

2002, text with ''The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow'', PBS * Robin Washington, producer
''You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!''
1995 documentary about Morgan and the Journey of Reconciliation, shown on New Hampshire Public TV

''Richmond Times-Dispatch'', 11 August 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Irene 1917 births 2007 deaths African-American activists American Seventh-day Adventists Activists for African-American civil rights Activists from Baltimore People from Gloucester County, Virginia Presidential Citizens Medal recipients United States racial desegregation case law