The Irene Morgan Story Begins

NW-7

On this site stood the Hayes Store Post Office, where Irene Morgan boarded a Greyhound bus on 16 July 1944. Morgan, an African American woman, was returning home to Baltimore, MD, after visiting her mother. About 25 miles north of here, the bus driver ordered her to give up her seat so that white passengers could sit. Refusing to comply, she was arrested and jailed in Saluda, VA. Her case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided in Morgan v. Virginia (1946) that laws requiring the segregation of passengers in interstate transportation were unconstitutional. Morgan took her stand 11 years before Rosa Parks in Montgomery, AL.

Department of Historic Resources, 2019

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Derek C. Catsam and Brendan Wolfe, “Morgan v. Virginia (1946),” Encyclopedia Virginia https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/morgan_v_virginia Fairfield Foundation, “Irene Morgan: Virginia’s Freedom Fighter,” 25 Feb. 2019. Raymond Arsenault, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). https://fairfieldfoundation.org/irene-morgan-virginias-freedom-fighter/ Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, “Old Hayes Store—The Irene Morgan Story” http://www.aahistoricsitesva.org/items/show/320?tour=6&index=16 “African American Heritage Trails Tour,” Multicultural Heritage Committee of Gloucester’s 350 Celebration Planning Committee (2000). Irene Morgan arrest warrant, 16 July 1944. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 16 June, 8 Dec. 1945, 30 March 1946, 8 June 1946. New York Times, 13 Aug. 2007. Washington Post, 30 July 2000.