Historical Highway Markers

Morgan v. Virginia

OC-44

Irene Morgan's resistance to segregation led to an important court case. On 16 July 1944, Morgan refused to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus to a white passenger. After a struggle with Middlesex County sheriffs she was arrested. Convicted by the State, she appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court with the help of Spottswood W. Robinson III and Thurgood Marshall, among others. In a landmark decision in 1946, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to enforce segregation laws on interstate carriers. This decision helped set precedent for the later battles the NAACP waged against segregation.

Department of Historic Resources, 2011

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Archives of Maryland (biographical series); Goldstein, Richard. “Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90, Rights Pioneer, Dies.” New York Times (13 August 2007); Vertical File, Virginia Historical Society; African American National Biography, edited Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)