Dictionary.com
definitions

freedom ride

or Freedom Ride

noun

(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.

Origin of freedom ride

An Americanism dating back to 1960–65
Related formsfreedom rider, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
freedom riders in Culture

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.

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.