freedom ride
or Freedom Ride
- (especially in the 1960s) a bus trip made to parts of the southern U.S. by persons engaging in efforts to integrate racially segregated public facilities.
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Origin of freedom ride
An Americanism dating back to 1960–65
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Freedom Riders
A group of northern idealists active in the civil rights movement. The Freedom Riders, who included both blacks and whites, rode buses into the South in the early 1960s in order to challenge racial segregation. Freedom Riders were regularly attacked by mobs of angry whites and received often belated protection from federal officers.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.