Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, have ever heard about her?

Answer 1

Irene Morgan later known as Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, was an important predecessor to Rosa Parks in the successful fight to overturn segregationist laws in the United States.

Like the more famous Parks, but 11 years earlier, in 1944, the 27-year-old Baltimore-born Morgan was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat on an interstate Greyhound bus to a white person. In July 1944, Morgan was a 27-year-old mother of two, living in Gloucester County, Virginia. She had been ill and one Sunday morning she boarded a Greyhound bus for Baltimore, where she was to see a doctor. She sat down four rows from the back of the bus, in the section for "colored" people. When a white couple needed seats, the driver told Morgan and her seatmate to move farther back. Irene Morgan refused.

The bus driver stopped in Middlesex County, Virginia, and summoned the sheriff, who tried to arrest Morgan. She tore up the arrest warrant, kicked the sheriff and fought with the deputy who tried to drag her off the bus. He succeeded, however, and Morgan was jailed for resisting arrest and violating Virginia's segregation law.

When she went to court, Morgan pleaded guilty to the first charge (resisting arrest) and paid a $100 fine. She pleaded not guilty to the second charge, but was found guilty and fined $10.