|
dailypress.com
Woman who fought bus
segregation dies
Gloucester's Irene
Morgan Kirkaldy stayed seated
a decade before Rosa
Parks.
BY KIMBALL PAYNE,
dailypress.com from the Web, August 14, 2007
GLOUCESTER, Aug. 12 -- Irene
Morgan Kirkaldy, a Gloucester woman whose battle for her bus seat triggered a
landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling nearly a decade before Rosa Parks' similar
struggle sparked outrage, died Friday at her daughter's home. She was 90.
Mrs. Kirkaldy was born Irene Morgan in Baltimore in 1917. But it was when
she was visiting her mother in Gloucester in the summer of 1944 when Mrs.
Kirkaldy ran afoul of segregation regulations.
The 27-year-old mother of two boarded a Greyhound bus in Gloucester bound for
Baltimore and as the bus filled up with passengers on Route 17, the driver tried
to force Mrs. Kirkaldy and another black woman to give up their seats to white
riders. Mrs. Kirkaldy refused.
The sheriff stopped the bus in the town of Saluda in Middlesex County and tried
to force her to give up the seat to a white man.
But Mrs. Kirkaldy would not relent and would not go quietly -- she ripped the
arrest warrant up and threw the remains out the window, kicked the sheriff and
fought with the deputy who tried to drag her off the bus.
Mrs. Kirkaldy's death comes as civil rights leaders, activists and historians
are still mourning the loss of prominent Richmond civil rights attorney Oliver
W. Hill -- who died Aug. 5 at the age of 100.
Hill was part of the legal brain trust -- spearheaded by legendary lawyer and
future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall -- which fought Mrs. Kirkaldy's
case all the way to the Supreme Court in 1946.
The team of attorneys used an innovative, unprecedented and ultimately
successful tact to win Mrs. Kirkaldy's case.
Instead of appealing to the reach of equal protection, Marshall and Hill argued
using a different section enshrined in the Constitution.
They made the case that Mrs. Kirkaldy should not have been forced to surrender
her seat because segregation on instate travel violated the interstate commerce
clause.
In 1946, the high court ruled that segregating interstate commerce was
unconstitutional.
The court overturned Mrs. Kirkaldy's conviction and $10 fine for refusing to
give up her seat. The case garnered little attention at the time, but
paved the way for Parks' stand on a local bus in Montgomery, Ala., in December
1955.
Friends and family members said Mrs. Kirkaldy was not in search of fame or
notoriety.
"She really didn't think that she was such an extraordinary person," said
granddaughter Janine Bacquie. "She felt she had to do what was right. She
just wanted to live her life and love her family."
Bacquie described her grandmother as a "very humble, gentle spirit" who was
dedicated to her family and children and enjoyed a lifelong thirst for education
-- Mrs. Kirkaldy received her bachelor's degree in her 60s and master's degree
in her 70s.
While her story does not boast the legendary status of Parks' tale, renowned
historians hail her as a trailblazing pioneer and in 2001 President Clinton
awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal -- the second highest civilian honor
in the United States.
Locals still want more people to find out about Mrs. Kirkaldy's struggle.
"There are still a lot of ears that haven't heard," said Dorothy Cooke, a
Gloucester educator and historian who knew Mrs. Kirkaldy. "She took a
stand not to stand, and you have to admire her."
dailypress.com/news/dp-02854sy0aug12,0,1478098.story
|
