Irene Morgan was an important precursor to Rosa Parks in the successful fight to overturn segregationist laws in the United States. Like the more famous Parks, but 11 years earlier, the 27 year old Morgan was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus to a white person. The bus was travelling from Gloucester, Virginia to Baltimore.

Her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, was argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP, later a Supreme Court Justice himself, and resulted in a landmark ruling in 1946 which struck down state laws requiring segregation in situations involved interstate transportation. Marshall used an innovative strategy to argue the case. Instead of relying upon the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment, Marshall argued successfully that segregation on interstate travel violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

Despite the successful ruling, Southern states refused to obey Irene Morgan v. Virginia. Morgan's case helped inspire the first Freedom Rides, during which 16 Civil Rights activists rode on interstate buses and trains to challenge the South's defiance of the Supreme Court. The 16 activists were black and white members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Fellowship of Reconcilliation (FOR) . The travels were called the "Journey of Reconciliation ". They lasted for two weeks and resulted in twelve arrests.

External links

• The Freedom Rider a Nation Nearly Forgot
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund description of the Irene Morgan Case
• Jim Crow Stories: Morgan v. Virginia
• Irene Morgan's story - "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" film Web site