Ethel Dean Smith Amos was born in Hayes not far from her burial site, and died in Baltimore.
She was survived by her husband Robert Amos (b. Apr 3, 1884; Baltimore, MD - d. Nov 1965, MD) and 6 daughters and 2 sons. (see attached obit).
She was the first wife of Robert Amos. Mrs. Cleo Warren of Gloucester, VA writes, "Robert Amos is my grandfather. He is buried in Baltimore, Maryland. He remarried years before my grandmother's (Ethel Dean Smith Amos) death.
Historical Note:
Her youngest daughter, Irene Janie Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (1917-2007) was a civil rights pioneer and legend - being the first person ever to be arrested for refusing to sit in the segregated black section of a bus in 1944 - eleven years before Rosa Parks!
She had been living in Baltimore, working at a defense plant making bombers when she went home to visit her mother in Hayes. The bus she took back to Baltimore - on which she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to white passengers - had left from in front of the "Old Hayes Store" in Hayes - just down the road from where her parents are now buried. The bus driver stopped in Saluda, Middlesex Co., VA and summoned a deputy who brought an arrest warrant, which she tore up and threw out the window. He then tried tried to pull her out of her seat, and she kicked him in the groin. His face turned several different shades as he exited the the bus bent over in pain and summoned a second deputy for assistance to remove her. Together they drug her from her seat and threw her in a Saluda City Jail cell on the ground floor, with no offer of a phone call. She was able to tap on the window and get the attention of a little black boy passing by, and told him to call her mother. Her mother bailed her out and the NAACP took up her case. She lost at the state level but they appealed her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, all the way to the United States Supreme Court - and won in 1946. Her victorious legal team included NAACP civil rights legal legend, Thurgood Marshall, later to become one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices. The ruling banned segregated seating on interstate buses - although many racist Southern States continued to flagrantly defy it until 1960. While Morgan's case applied to interstate busing, Rosa Parks case applied to intrastate and municipal buses.
"Kirkaldy, long a footnote of history, was virtually unknown and overshadowed by civil rights icon Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. History books obscured Morgan's contribution for decades, until her birthplace of Gloucester, Va., honored her during the town's 350th anniversary in 2001. Then President Bill Clinton also recognized her that year with the Presidential Citizens Medal." (quote from https://melaninmindscape.com/irene-morgan-kirkaldy-the-original-freedom-rider/)
More:
U.S. civil rights pioneer Irene Morgan Kirkaldy remembered for courage
Didn't give up bus seat 11 years before Rosa Parks; won Supreme Court case [obit]
https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2007-08-19/us-civil-rights-pioneer-irene-morgan-kirkaldy-remembered-for-courage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan
Old Hayes Store - The Irene Morgan Story
http://afrovirginia.org/items/show/320
BLAZING THE TRAIL TO EQUALITY
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20000730-2000-07-30-0007300153-story.html
She was survived by her husband Robert Amos (b. Apr 3, 1884; Baltimore, MD - d. Nov 1965, MD) and 6 daughters and 2 sons. (see attached obit).
She was the first wife of Robert Amos. Mrs. Cleo Warren of Gloucester, VA writes, "Robert Amos is my grandfather. He is buried in Baltimore, Maryland. He remarried years before my grandmother's (Ethel Dean Smith Amos) death.
Historical Note:
Her youngest daughter, Irene Janie Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (1917-2007) was a civil rights pioneer and legend - being the first person ever to be arrested for refusing to sit in the segregated black section of a bus in 1944 - eleven years before Rosa Parks!
She had been living in Baltimore, working at a defense plant making bombers when she went home to visit her mother in Hayes. The bus she took back to Baltimore - on which she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to white passengers - had left from in front of the "Old Hayes Store" in Hayes - just down the road from where her parents are now buried. The bus driver stopped in Saluda, Middlesex Co., VA and summoned a deputy who brought an arrest warrant, which she tore up and threw out the window. He then tried tried to pull her out of her seat, and she kicked him in the groin. His face turned several different shades as he exited the the bus bent over in pain and summoned a second deputy for assistance to remove her. Together they drug her from her seat and threw her in a Saluda City Jail cell on the ground floor, with no offer of a phone call. She was able to tap on the window and get the attention of a little black boy passing by, and told him to call her mother. Her mother bailed her out and the NAACP took up her case. She lost at the state level but they appealed her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, all the way to the United States Supreme Court - and won in 1946. Her victorious legal team included NAACP civil rights legal legend, Thurgood Marshall, later to become one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices. The ruling banned segregated seating on interstate buses - although many racist Southern States continued to flagrantly defy it until 1960. While Morgan's case applied to interstate busing, Rosa Parks case applied to intrastate and municipal buses.
"Kirkaldy, long a footnote of history, was virtually unknown and overshadowed by civil rights icon Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. History books obscured Morgan's contribution for decades, until her birthplace of Gloucester, Va., honored her during the town's 350th anniversary in 2001. Then President Bill Clinton also recognized her that year with the Presidential Citizens Medal." (quote from https://melaninmindscape.com/irene-morgan-kirkaldy-the-original-freedom-rider/)
More:
U.S. civil rights pioneer Irene Morgan Kirkaldy remembered for courage
Didn't give up bus seat 11 years before Rosa Parks; won Supreme Court case [obit]
https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2007-08-19/us-civil-rights-pioneer-irene-morgan-kirkaldy-remembered-for-courage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan
Old Hayes Store - The Irene Morgan Story
http://afrovirginia.org/items/show/320
BLAZING THE TRAIL TO EQUALITY
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20000730-2000-07-30-0007300153-story.html
Ethel Dean Smith Amos was born in Hayes not far from her burial site, and died in Baltimore.
She was survived by her husband Robert Amos (b. Apr 3, 1884; Baltimore, MD - d. Nov 1965, MD) and 6 daughters and 2 sons. (see attached obit).
She was the first wife of Robert Amos. Mrs. Cleo Warren of Gloucester, VA writes, "Robert Amos is my grandfather. He is buried in Baltimore, Maryland. He remarried years before my grandmother's (Ethel Dean Smith Amos) death.
Historical Note:
Her youngest daughter, Irene Janie Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (1917-2007) was a civil rights pioneer and legend - being the first person ever to be arrested for refusing to sit in the segregated black section of a bus in 1944 - eleven years before Rosa Parks!
She had been living in Baltimore, working at a defense plant making bombers when she went home to visit her mother in Hayes. The bus she took back to Baltimore - on which she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to white passengers - had left from in front of the "Old Hayes Store" in Hayes - just down the road from where her parents are now buried. The bus driver stopped in Saluda, Middlesex Co., VA and summoned a deputy who brought an arrest warrant, which she tore up and threw out the window. He then tried tried to pull her out of her seat, and she kicked him in the groin. His face turned several different shades as he exited the the bus bent over in pain and summoned a second deputy for assistance to remove her. Together they drug her from her seat and threw her in a Saluda City Jail cell on the ground floor, with no offer of a phone call. She was able to tap on the window and get the attention of a little black boy passing by, and told him to call her mother. Her mother bailed her out and the NAACP took up her case. She lost at the state level but they appealed her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, all the way to the United States Supreme Court - and won in 1946. Her victorious legal team included NAACP civil rights legal legend, Thurgood Marshall, later to become one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices. The ruling banned segregated seating on interstate buses - although many racist Southern States continued to flagrantly defy it until 1960. While Morgan's case applied to interstate busing, Rosa Parks case applied to intrastate and municipal buses.
"Kirkaldy, long a footnote of history, was virtually unknown and overshadowed by civil rights icon Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. History books obscured Morgan's contribution for decades, until her birthplace of Gloucester, Va., honored her during the town's 350th anniversary in 2001. Then President Bill Clinton also recognized her that year with the Presidential Citizens Medal." (quote from https://melaninmindscape.com/irene-morgan-kirkaldy-the-original-freedom-rider/)
More:
U.S. civil rights pioneer Irene Morgan Kirkaldy remembered for courage
Didn't give up bus seat 11 years before Rosa Parks; won Supreme Court case [obit]
https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2007-08-19/us-civil-rights-pioneer-irene-morgan-kirkaldy-remembered-for-courage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan
Old Hayes Store - The Irene Morgan Story
http://afrovirginia.org/items/show/320
BLAZING THE TRAIL TO EQUALITY
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20000730-2000-07-30-0007300153-story.html
She was survived by her husband Robert Amos (b. Apr 3, 1884; Baltimore, MD - d. Nov 1965, MD) and 6 daughters and 2 sons. (see attached obit).
She was the first wife of Robert Amos. Mrs. Cleo Warren of Gloucester, VA writes, "Robert Amos is my grandfather. He is buried in Baltimore, Maryland. He remarried years before my grandmother's (Ethel Dean Smith Amos) death.
Historical Note:
Her youngest daughter, Irene Janie Amos Morgan Kirkaldy (1917-2007) was a civil rights pioneer and legend - being the first person ever to be arrested for refusing to sit in the segregated black section of a bus in 1944 - eleven years before Rosa Parks!
She had been living in Baltimore, working at a defense plant making bombers when she went home to visit her mother in Hayes. The bus she took back to Baltimore - on which she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to white passengers - had left from in front of the "Old Hayes Store" in Hayes - just down the road from where her parents are now buried. The bus driver stopped in Saluda, Middlesex Co., VA and summoned a deputy who brought an arrest warrant, which she tore up and threw out the window. He then tried tried to pull her out of her seat, and she kicked him in the groin. His face turned several different shades as he exited the the bus bent over in pain and summoned a second deputy for assistance to remove her. Together they drug her from her seat and threw her in a Saluda City Jail cell on the ground floor, with no offer of a phone call. She was able to tap on the window and get the attention of a little black boy passing by, and told him to call her mother. Her mother bailed her out and the NAACP took up her case. She lost at the state level but they appealed her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, all the way to the United States Supreme Court - and won in 1946. Her victorious legal team included NAACP civil rights legal legend, Thurgood Marshall, later to become one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices. The ruling banned segregated seating on interstate buses - although many racist Southern States continued to flagrantly defy it until 1960. While Morgan's case applied to interstate busing, Rosa Parks case applied to intrastate and municipal buses.
"Kirkaldy, long a footnote of history, was virtually unknown and overshadowed by civil rights icon Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. History books obscured Morgan's contribution for decades, until her birthplace of Gloucester, Va., honored her during the town's 350th anniversary in 2001. Then President Bill Clinton also recognized her that year with the Presidential Citizens Medal." (quote from https://melaninmindscape.com/irene-morgan-kirkaldy-the-original-freedom-rider/)
More:
U.S. civil rights pioneer Irene Morgan Kirkaldy remembered for courage
Didn't give up bus seat 11 years before Rosa Parks; won Supreme Court case [obit]
https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2007-08-19/us-civil-rights-pioneer-irene-morgan-kirkaldy-remembered-for-courage/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan
Old Hayes Store - The Irene Morgan Story
http://afrovirginia.org/items/show/320
BLAZING THE TRAIL TO EQUALITY
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20000730-2000-07-30-0007300153-story.html
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
