The Nation’s First Freedom Rider
In July of 1944, Mrs. Kirkaldy, suffered a miscarriage and rode the bus from Baltimore to Gloucester, Virginia to drop of her two children with her mother while she recovered. On her return trip to Baltimore, on July 16, 1944, she boarded a Greyhound bus in Gloucester and walked to the back of the bus. Jim Crow laws of the south dictated that she sit in the back of the bus; the section designated for colored people. She sat next to a young African American woman with a small child.
After several stops the bus became crowded. A white woman got on. Mrs. Kirkaldy was told by the bus driver to give up her seat. She refused. The young lady was also told to get up. Mrs. Kirkaldy did not move and she told the young woman to sit back down. She explained to her that she could not ride the bus standing up with a young child.
The bus driver drove to Saluda and got a deputy. The deputy told her to get up. She again refused. The deputy threatened to issue a warrant for her arrest. She asked how he planned on issuing a warrant without knowing her name. The deputy grabbed her arm and tried to pull her off the bus. Mrs. Kirkaldy did not go willingly. She kicked him in the groin. He hobbled of the bus and a second deputy came on and confronted Mrs. Kirkaldy. He grabbed her. During a conversation with Ms. Brenda Bacquie on September 6, 2009, the daughter of Mrs. Kirkaldy, she stated, “She was going to bite him but he was too dirty”. A tussle ensued and the deputy threatened to hit her with his nightstick. She told the deputy, “We’ll just hit each other”.
Mrs. Kirkaldy was charged with resisting arrest and violating Virginia’s segregation laws. She was taken of the bus and jailed in Saluda. Ms. Bacquie stated that while being detained Mrs. Kirkaldy tapped on the window and got a little boy’s attention. She told him to go get her mother and Reverend Carter.
Bail was set at $500.00. Her mother raised the bail money with the help of the community. Within hours of being detained, Mrs. Kirkaldy was released. At the trial she pled guilty to the resisting arrest charge and paid the fine. She refused to plead guilty to violating Jim Crow laws and she would not pay the $10.00 fine. Ms. Bacquie stated that there was no court in the land that could make her mother believe she was inferior to anyone.
Represented by a dream team of attorneys, Oliver Hill, William Hastie, Spotswood W. Robinson III, and the Thurgood Marshall, the case was appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court in Morgan v. the Commonwealth of Virginia. They lost the appeal. The case was later appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 3, 1946, the Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate travel stating in part that segregation put and undue burden on interstate commerce.
Mrs. Kirkaldy was born in Baltimore the sixth of nine children. She married Sherman Morgan and had two children. In 1948 he died. She later married Stanley Kirkaldy and moved to Queens, NY. Mr. Kirkaldy died in 2006. Her family history goes back to early days of Virginia and Tabbs Plantation in Gloucester.
Mrs. Kirkaldy valued education. In 1985 she received a Bachelor's degree from St. Johns University. In 1990 she earned a Masters degree from Queens College at the age of 73. In addition Ms. Bacquie reported that her mother helped to desegregate schools in Baltimore MD.
PICTURES: Top Row L: Irene Morgan Kirkaldy. Courtesy of her daughter, Ms. Brenda Bacquie. Top Row R: Grave marker. Second Row: Presidential Citizens Medal awarded to Mrs. Kirkaldy by President Clinton. Third Row L: Middlesex County Courthhouse, Saluda, VA. There are two doors leading into the courthouse, one was for Whites, the other for Colored. Third Row R: Possibly the window Mrs. Kirkaldy tapped on to get a boy's attention.
INTERRED: Rosewell Cemetery, Providence Road, Hayes, Virginia 23072
SUBMITTED: September 9, 2009. Pictures taken September 6, 2009.
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