A Lesser-Known Civil Rights Hero

Story by Celeste Ryan Blyden

Irene Morgan Kirkaldy (1917–2007), a Seventh-day Adventist from Baltimore and one of the lesser-known civil rights heroes, was recently recognized with a new highway marker in Glouchester, Va., honoring her story. In 1944, while traveling home from Virginia, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the colored section of the bus to a white passenger. She took her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared interstate transport racial segregation unconstitutional.