Freedom rides in the 1950s-1970s, was a controversial subject in society that occurred continuously worldwide. The main two places that freedom rides occurred would be in America and Australia, where there were significant problems that affected economy and society.
In America, the southern United States were still segregated in 1961 and took a very long time to challenge the non-implementation of the United States Supreme Court choices Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which decided that segregated public transport were unlawful.
The Southern states had overlooked the decisions and the federal government did nothing to implement them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to touch base in New Orleans on May 17.
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In Australia, the Freedom Ride included visits to Walgett, Gulargambone, Kempsey, Bowraville and Moree. Students explored the living conditions which Aboriginal individuals suffered outside the towns. In the towns Aboriginal individuals were routinely banished from clubs, pools and cafes.
They were often denied assistance in shops and rejected beverages in hotels. The students demonstrated against racial segregation rehearsed at the Walgett Returned Services League, the Moree Baths, the Kempsey Baths and the Boraville picture theater. They not only challenged these practices, but they ensured that reports of their demonstrations and local townspeople’s hostile responses were available for news broadcasts on radio and television.
There were multiple government actions that have occurred in order to help improve the civil rights for particular races such as Indigenous and African American. While both countries, America and Australia, demolished majority of racial segregation, there are a lot of differences between how the two countries handled the situation. Some of the differentiations are:
- Australia went a few steps further and handed back land privileges to the indigenous Although, the government did only give back minimal privileges in fear of the indigenous taking back all of the land in Australia. This improved the living state, the quality of education and indigenous rights by a substantial amount, leading for the indigenous people to have more possible options in education and careers.
- The Australian government implemented the indigenous culture into schools and added in subjects of the indigenous language to be learned. The government has also included National Sorry Day, which is an annual event that has been held in Australia on 26 May, since 1998, to acknowledge and recognise members of the stolen generation.
- Majority of the freedom rides in Australia were not aggressive whilst the freedom rides in America were often attacked with baseball bats, clubs, bombs, guns and cars.
Common outcomes that have occurred in Australia and America due to the freedom rides is that the Aboriginals and African Americans were able to own land, some allowed to drink alcoholic beverages, visit pools and cafes, and not have to sit in segregated transport and schools.
Finally, it may be concluded that there are multiple differences on how America and Australia treated the indigenous and African Americans and how society has reacted to the ‘Freedom rides’ protests.
