An effort is underway to establish a scholarship fund in honor of Irene Morgan, the Gloucester woman who became a civil rights leader after refusing to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus in 1944.

Her refusal to give up her seat to a white patron resulted two years later in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that segregated seating on interstate transportation was unconstitutional. That decision was famously put to the test by the Freedom Riders in 1961.

On Feb. 1, 2020, members of the Friends of the Gloucester Museum of History and its Black History Committee sponsored a community event to dedicate an historical marker the organization secured to honor Irene Morgan and her historic journey. The marker, titled “The Irene Morgan Story Begins,” is located at 2425 Hayes Road, at the site of the previous Hayes post office where Morgan had boarded the Greyhound bus.

As a retired educator who became inspired by Morgan’s life and legacy, Dr. William Evans is leading an...