freedom rider

British

noun

a person who participated, esp in the 1960s, in an organized tour, usually by public transport in the South, in order to protest against racism and put federal laws on integration to the test

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

During his sophomore year at Stanford, he begged his parents to allow him to join the “freedom riders” heading to the Deep South.

From Washington Post

John Doar, class of 1944, provided legal support to the freedom riders and other civil rights activists in the early 1960s.

From Washington Post

He was a freedom rider, along with two of his children.

From Washington Post

Many of the reverse freedom riders ultimately went back home, including Mr. Denham, who spent a few years in California before his father split from his stepmother and brought him back to Louisiana.

From New York Times

Bernard Lafayette, at right, stands with five other freedom riders at the closed door of a Greyhound bus in Birmingham, Alabama, May 19, 1961.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023