Freedom Rides Essay

Charles Perkins was an Australian whose birth took place in Alice Spring’s Telegraph Station which was controlled by police, in the year 1936. He and his mother called a mud hut home in Alice Springs until they were coerced to leave, for a law existed which prohibited the inhabitation of Aboriginals in this area. Although he was removed from his home, he is not said to have been part of the Stolen Generation. Being forced to leave Alice Springs, Charles was left a scar as it is documented that he did not live there again. However, since he was raised there and his childhood experiences and memories were stamped there, he made it a habit to visit there on a regular basis. It is believed that Charles was around ten years of age when he relocated.

Stanley Nelson chronicles the journey of a group of individuals, known as the Freedom Riders, whom fought for the rights of African Americans to have the same amenities and access as the Caucasians. The purpose of the Freedom Rides was to deliberately violate the Jim Crow laws of the south that prohibited blacks and whites from mixing together on buses and trains. Expectedly, many of the Freedom Riders were beaten and the majority was imprisoned. This carried on for the majority of 1961 and culminated with the Interstate Commerce Commission issuing an order to end the segregation in bus and rail stations. Nelson encapsulates this entire movement in about two hours. At the end of the two hours, the viewer is emotionally tied to the

Write a report on a person (500 words) and explain their significance to Indigenous people/communities and to Australian society more broadly. Besides being the first Aboriginal Australian to graduate from university, Charles Perkins, was an inspiring leader to Aboriginal people/communities and Australian society. Described by Hughes as “a pioneering Aboriginal spokesman and bureaucrat” (as cited in "Charles Perkins - Biographical Information", 2018), Perkins grit and sometimes confrontational viewpoints in combination with his ground-breaking and activist behaviours gained him both followers and rivals. As a key student activist of his time Perkins had significant impact on the uncovering and revealing of the poor treatment and living conditions

A group of people risked their life to obtain equality for African Americans in the south. The Freedom Riders were a group of around 13 people. Most of them were African Americans but there were always a few white skinned people in the group as well. There was no set leader for the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders rode interstate buses into the Southern United States. The south was referred to as the most segregated part of the U.S. The main goal of the Freedom Riders was to desegregate and become “separate but equal.” They had also set out to defy the Jim Crow Laws. The Freedom Riders had a little bit of help from two court cases: Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia. These court cases ruled that it was

Primary Source that was taken in 1928, Children are removed by the Aborigines Protection Board from the Gully at Katoomba. They’re either transferred to Bakersville Home or to Bomaderry UAM Home.

When the British moved in the west in 1815 (Flood, 2001 p. 97), Governor Macquarie came across the new settlement of Bathurst on Macquarie River approx. 150 miles west of Sydney (Flood, 2001 p. 97). The Wiradjuri people, numbering over 3000 people, spreading over 97, 000 km of central New South Wales (Flood, 2001 p. 97), which then eventually travelled to Bathurst region in 1820s (Blackburn, 2002 p. 140). Unfortunately, settlement around Bathurst displayed a Wiradjuri group led by Windradyne whom was a known aboriginal warrior and resistance leader for the Wiradjuri group (Buckett & Buckett, 2014 p. 46; Flood, 2006 p. 93). It was expressed how they believed that the settlers weren’t welcome due to how ‘it was their country, the water and land

Stan Grant’s speech ‘Racism and the Australian Dream’ (2015) effectively reminds the Australian population of the racism and harsh inequalities indigenous Australians have faced in the past and still face today. In reminding us of this reality, Grant engages us to discover issues of civic participation in Aboriginal people and in doing so perpetuates a need for social change. More?

On May 4, 1961, a group of civil rights activist inclusive of some African Americans (there was thirteen in total) created the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were a series of bus trips protesting segregation in the southern parts of the United States. Eight days later, in Rock Hill, South Carolina four riders were brutally attacked for trying to sit in a white only waiting area. The next day after reaching Atlanta, Georgia the riders split up to cover more ground. The first bus heading for Anniston, Alabama, and the other heading for Birmingham, Alabama.

During the ongoing visits on ‘The Freedom Rides’ around the many towns like Bowraville, Boggabilla and Moree, the students had observed the kind of segregation and refusal of service the Aboriginal people faced in places like pools, clubs and shops. In reference to the image in source 3, the itinerary showed the expected dates for stops, demonstrations and surveys and when they would return back to Sydney which would altogether take place over 2 weeks. The students filmed and filed reports to the ABC of the kind of treatment and racism Aboriginal people received, for instance their living conditions and locations which Charlie Perkins in source 4 describes as ‘at river banks, shanties, huts or at the end of a road where there’s (a) rubbish tip’. The main reason of their filming was to show people the truth on what was happening in country towns and to not believe what the news covered Australia to be; that racism did not exist. The publicity gained from The Freedom Rides raised awareness of the racism in Australia and influenced the 1967 Referendum and other campaigns in the future with similar purposes.

Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

For the last 200 years Indigenous people have been victims of discrimination, prejudice and disadvantage. Poor education, poor living conditions and general poverty are still overwhelming issues for a large percentage of our people and we remain ‘as a group, the most poverty stricken sector of the working class’ in Australia (Cuthoys 1983).

The Underground Railroad was one of the most remarkable protests against slavery in United States history. It was a fight for personal survival, which many slaves lost in trying to attain their freedom. Slaves fought for their own existence in trying to keep with the traditions of their homeland, their homes in which they were so brutally taken away from. In all of this turmoil however they managed to preserve the customs and traditions of their native land. These slaves fought for their existence and for their cultural heritage with the help of many people and places along the path we now call the Underground Railroad.

Over the past 230 years, Aboriginals have protested in many different ways to gain rights, which they believe they are deserving of. Through aims of what they wanted to achieve, the processes they went through brought them disappointment over the poor results of some actions and pleasure over the success of others. Over those years, very few periods of protest have been as revelational or effective as the protests occurring between 1938 and 1972. During this period many different groups of Aboriginals have fought for the common cause of being recognised as people rather than interferences caught in the midst of Australians expansion as a nation.

It is a commonly known issue in Australia that as a minority group, the people of Indigenous Australian ethnicity have always been treated, or at least perceived, differently to those of non-Indigenous disposition. This can be applied to different contexts such as social, economic, education, or in relation to this essay – legal contexts. Generally, Indigenous Australians face issues such as less opportunity for formal education, less access to sufficient income, more health issues, and higher rates of imprisonment (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service

During the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans sought to have their Constitutional Rights permitted. One form of protesting came forth in the form of the Freedom Rides. After slavery ended, many amendments and laws were created to ensure the rights of African Americans, but because of prejudices and racism, most of these were ignored. The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Fergunson established "separate but equal" on interstate transportation in 1896, but in 1947 the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. And although segregation was outlawed, Jim Crow laws still ruled the Deep South and “codified in law, sanctioned by the courts, and enforced by the ubiquitous threat of physical violence even more than legal reprisal" (Catsam