''Morgan v. Virginia'', 328 U.S. 373 (1946), is a major

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 ...

case. In this landmark 1946 ruling, 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 7–1 that Virginia's state law enforcing segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional. The case was argued by William H. Hastie, the former governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands and later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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 ...

of the NAACP was co-counsel; he later was appointed as a US Supreme Court justice."Milestones," August 27, 2007 edition of ''TIME Magazine'' at p. 23. 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 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 ...

of the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constituti ...

. The Court balanced the interest in "local police power" against uniformity in interstate travel regulations and decided that a single uniform rule was required: "Where uniformity is essential for the functioning of commerce, a state may not interpose its local regulation". Virginia and other Southern states ignored the ruling, and continued with their practice of enforcing racial segregation in interstate transportation vehicles and facilities.

Background

"If something happens to you which is wrong, the best thing to do is have it corrected in the best way you can," said

Irene Morgan Irene Amos Morgan (April 9, 1917 – August 10, 2007), later known as Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, was an African-American woman from Baltimore, Maryland, who was arrested in Middlesex County, Virginia, in 1944 under a state law imposing racial segreg ...

, the African-American plaintiff who was arrested in Virginia for refusing to move from the "White" to the "Colored" section on a Greyhound interstate bus. "The best thing for me to do was to go to the Supreme Court." In 1944, at the time of the incident, she was working at a defense contractor, the aircraft manufacturer Glenn L. Martin Company, based in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. She worked on the production line making

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. She had traveled to Virginia to visit her mother. Morgan was arrested in Middlesex County on her return trip to Baltimore, after refusing to move at the direction of the bus driver.

Aftermath

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. But the Southern states refused to comply and continued to eject or arrest African Americans who tried to use restrooms, waiting areas and cafeterias or lunch counters reserved for whites in such facilities, as Southern states refused to obey ''Morgan v. Virginia''."Equal Access to Public Accommodations" – The Civil Rights Movement in Virginia
, Virginia Historical Society The efforts of the

Freedom Riders Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the Racial segregation in the United States, segregated Southern United States, Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of t ...

in 1961 were undertaken in part to challenge the ineffectual adherence to this ruling in a number of the states in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

References

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''Morgan v. Virginia'', {{Ussc, 328, 373, 1946, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/104305/morgan-v-virginia/ , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/328/373/ , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep328/usrep328373/usrep328373.pdf 1946 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Vinson Court Civil rights movement case law United States racial desegregation case law Thurgood Marshall Legal history of Virginia