Freedom rides

Freedom Rider is also a song by Traffic

The Freedom Rides were a series of student political protests performed in 1961 as part of the US civil rights movement. Student volunteers, African American and white, called Freedom Riders, rode in interstate buses into the pro-segregationist U.S. South to test the 1960 United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia'', 364 U.S. 454, which outlawed racial segregation in interstate public facilities, including bus stations. The rides were organized by activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as well as the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). They followed on the heels of dramatic SIT-INS against segregation held by students and youth throughout the U.S. South the previous year.

The freedom rides began May 4, 1961, and were a protest set up by CORE as a comeback for one of the original protest groups. It was due to take a group of mixed black and white protesters from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans using public bus services. This route was to go through the Deep South and the worst areas of segregation and racism in America.

The names of the riders included James L. Farmer, William Mahoney, John Lewis, James Zwerg, James Peck, Frederick Leonard, Diane Nash, and William Sloan Coffin, among others totalling over 400. Three-fourths of the riders were under 30, mostly male and evenly divided between black and white.

Technically, the Riders were not engaging in civil disobedience since they had the clear legal right to disregard any segregation rules in the states they visited concerning interstate public facilities. However, the volunteers still had to use their doctrine of non-violent resistance in facing both mob violence and mass arrest by authorities who were determined to stop this protest. The Freedom riders faced much resistance to their cause but had support from leading figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr. during their protest in Alabama, and many other people.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government was criticized for not making a concerted effort to protect the riders. However, in Montgomery, Ralph Abernathy's church held a supporting rally for the freedom riders, and the only thing that prevented disaster when the building was mobbed was the intervention of the Federal Marshalls. Eventually, the publicity resulting from the rides and the violent reaction to them led to a stricter enforcement of the earlier Supreme Court decision.

The worst violence that occurred during the Freedom Rides was when the busses approached Birmingham, Alabama. At the time the Police chief, Eugene "Bull" Connor was allowing the continuance of racist attitudes to go unchecked. No protection was given to the protesters and one of the two busses was fire-bombed before reaching the city. When the other bus reached Birmingham City, the violence that it was greeted with left one of the protesters, Jim Zwerg, severely injured and temporarily disfigured. The rest of the Protesters were left feeling defeated and almost gave up until the intervention of the protest group SNCC (student non-violent coordinating committee), this student based group took over the organising and peopling of the protest and saw it through until it reached its final destination, New Orleans.

The activists in the campaign gained credibility among blacks in rural communities of the South, who were impressed by the riders' determination and heroism in the face of great danger. This credibility helped many of the subsequent Civil Rights campaigns, including campaigns for voter registration, freedom schools, and electoral campaigns.

There was one Freedom Ride prior to the famous ones; in 1947, Bayard Rustin and George Houser of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized a Freedom Ride through the South following a Supreme Court ruling desegregating the buses themselves (though not the bus terminals) in interstate travel. One rider, James Peck, would also participate in the 1961 ride.

References

* Freedom Riders, 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, Raymond Arsenault (Oxford Univ. Press 2006)Already active in Aboriginal affairs, Charles Perkins helped to form Student Action for Aborigines in 1964, and was elected President.In February 1965, after a little over six months detailed organising, he led a busload of 29 students into the outback of New South Wales.

Through the Freedom Ride of 1965, which he led, and through many media interviews, he exposed the abject conditions and the racism suffered by Aboriginal people in country NSW and across the nation.

Within all this social awareness and revolution came Charles Perkins. Charles had enrolled at Sydney University in 1963, and along with Gary Williams, made up the first Aboriginal students to attend Sydney University. Charles had travelled abroad to play soccer, and in doing so had been exposed to different societal behaviour. He believed that his people deserved more, and that racial discrimination was holding them back. Thus Charles decided to confront white Australians about their treatment of Aboriginal people.

To do this he decided to duplicate the US Freedom rides, get a bus and travel rural NSW to protest against the segregation that was prevalent. 29 other students set off with Charles on the night of the 12 February.

The first two towns they went to were Wellington and Gulargumbone. Here they conducted surveys with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to find out about the living conditions and their points of view. This reaffirmed what they thought the situation was - extremely bad. Though, because of the deficiency of contact and support from the Indigenous community, they did not protest in these towns, instead moving onto the next ones.

On the 15 February the students pulled up in Walgett. They had decided that to confront the racism they would picket the Walgett RSL. The RSL was symbolic. It was in the memory of the past wars, and the ANZAC, that Australia found the deepest sense of ‘mateship' and nationhood. It was high in the Australian culture and psyche. Unfortunately this comradeship did not extend to Aboriginal ex-servicemen. They were only allowed to use the RSL facilities on ANZAC day, if at all.

The Walgett RSL protest went extremely well. A cadet reporter for the Herald was in Walgett at the time and took some photos of the protest; finally they had the media coverage that gave them the greater audience the students were hoping for. That night the students were asked to leave the church hall that they were spending the night in. The bus left Walgett in the middle of the night, but as they were leaving the town a grazier's son rammed the bus off the road. Luckily no one was injured, and coincidently there was a journalist on board, making the incident headlines in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Onto Moree for the Freedom Riders, where they were met by more members of the press. In Moree they decided to address the segregation of the local swimming pool. The protester had a three point plan here, firstly to protest out the front of the council chambers, then to take Aboriginal children to the pool and lastly to hold a public meeting in the evening. It was a great success with the students feeling that they had desegregated the public pool.

By this stage the Freedom Ride had national and international press coverage. The bus stopped along the east coast at Lismore, Bowraville and Kempsey before returning home to Sydney.

With their return there was greater awareness of Indigenous issues rurally. They had successfully stirred up debate on the state of Aboriginal affairs around Australia. With the press coverage they had obtained, came pressure from outside and within Australia for reform. This debate was maintained up the 1967 Referendum. The Freedom Rides have also been credited with helping end the ‘White Australia' policy

And yet a great deal has changed for the better. Charles Perkins fascinated the press in the 1960s because he was a rarity, an Aboriginal leader who could clearly communicate to both black and white Australians a message that emphasised freedom, dignity, and human rights. Since then, there have been many leaders, not only in the directly political sphere but also communicators through art, film, song, dance, and writing. Charles Perkins and Margaret Valadian were the first Aboriginal people to gain university degrees; now many more have followed. Universities are still largely non-Indigenous institutions but they are not entirely so, and we are all the better for it. Indigenous people have taken charge of their own political organisations in a way that was rare in the 1960s, and are speaking outin so many ways.I don't think we can learn from history in any direct sense. The context changes, so that actions that were appropriate once are no longer. A freedom ride of the kind that was undertaken in 1965 would seem odd today, especially with its preponderance of non-Indigenous people. I do think though we can learn a lot from history in a more general sense, understanding for example the effects of colonisation on both Indigenous and non-Indigenous consciousness today, and the longevity of Indigenous and indeed non-Indigenous protest. It is important to recognise that relations between Indigenous and12 other people in this country have changed and consequently can change again, can be based on equality and mutual respect.An event of historical significance, the Freedom Ride of 1965 helped awaken mainstream Australia of the 1960s to the level of discrimination and injustice endured by Aboriginal people in regional areas. Sparked by similar protests in the southern states of America, the Australian Freedom Ride was part of the broader movement for civils rights for Aboriginal people and helped create momentum for changes such as the 1967 referendum.
* "Oh, my God, they're going to burn us up!" Account of attack on Freedom Rides bus outside Anniston, Alabama on May 14, 1961.
* THE MANcrow/1_home.html "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" Web site for documentary of 1947 Journey of Reconciliation.