Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, desegregation pioneer

IRENE Morgan Kirkaldy (90), whose refusal to give up her bus seat to white passengers led to a landmark court decision more than a decade before Rosa Parks gained recognition for doing the same, has died.

Kirkaldy, born Irene Morgan in 1917, was arrested in 1944 for refusing to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus heading from Gloucester to Baltimore, and for resisting arrest. Her case was appealed to the US Supreme Court by an NAACP lawyer named Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black justice on the high court.The Supreme Court held in June 1946 that Virginia law requiring the races to be separated on interstate buses – even making passengers change seats mid-journey to maintain separation if the number of passengers changed – was an invalid interference in interstate commerce.At the time, the case received little attention, and not all bus companies complied with the ruling at first, but it paved the way for civil rights victories to come, including Parks’ famous stand on a local bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.Kirkaldy also inspired the first Freedom Ride in 1947, when 16 civil rights activists rode buses and trains through the South to test the Supreme Court decision.In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal – the second highest civilian honour in the United States.Asked where her courage came from that day, Kirkaldy said simply: “I can’t understand how anyone would have done otherwise.”Kirkaldy, then a young mother, boarded the Greyhound bus in Hayes Store, Virginia, and took a seat toward the back for her ride home.She was recovering from surgery and had taken her two children to stay temporarily with her mother.A few miles down the road, the driver told her to move because a white couple wanted to occupy her row.”I said ‘Well, no,’” she recalled.”That was a seat I had paid for.”Kirkaldy said she willingly paid a US$100 fine for resisting arrest because she did kick the officer who tried to remove her from the bus.”Sometimes, you are so enraged, you don’t have time to be afraid,” she remarked in 2000.She lived out of the spotlight for decades after the case, earning a college degree in 1985 at age 68.She said she didn’t mind the relatively little notice her achievements brought.”If there’s a job to be done, you do it and get it over with and go on to the next thing,” she told The Washington Post in 2000.Nampa-APHer case was appealed to the US Supreme Court by an NAACP lawyer named Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black justice on the high court.The Supreme Court held in June 1946 that Virginia law requiring the races to be separated on interstate buses – even making passengers change seats mid-journey to maintain separation if the number of passengers changed – was an invalid interference in interstate commerce.At the time, the case received little attention, and not all bus companies complied with the ruling at first, but it paved the way for civil rights victories to come, including Parks’ famous stand on a local bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.Kirkaldy also inspired the first Freedom Ride in 1947, when 16 civil rights activists rode buses and trains through the South to test the Supreme Court decision.In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal – the second highest civilian honour in the United States.Asked where her courage came from that day, Kirkaldy said simply: “I can’t understand how anyone would have done otherwise.”Kirkaldy, then a young mother, boarded the Greyhound bus in Hayes Store, Virginia, and took a seat toward the back for her ride home.She was recovering from surgery and had taken her two children to stay temporarily with her mother.A few miles down the road, the driver told her to move because a white couple wanted to occupy her row.”I said ‘Well, no,’” she recalled.”That was a seat I had paid for.”Kirkaldy said she willingly paid a US$100 fine for resisting arrest because she did kick the officer who tried to remove her from the bus.”Sometimes, you are so enraged, you don’t have time to be afraid,” she remarked in 2000.She lived out of the spotlight for decades after the case, earning a college degree in 1985 at age 68.She said she didn’t mind the relatively little notice her achievements brought.”If there’s a job to be done, you do it and get it over with and go on to the next thing,” she told The Washington Post in 2000.Nampa-AP