freedom ride
Syllables: free·dom rideUK/ˈfɹiːdəm ˌɹaɪd//ˈfɹidəm ˌɹaɪd/
freedom ride noun: in the United States in the 1960s (chiefly 1961), any one of a number of trips taken by bus or other forms of transport through parts of the southern U.S., made by groups of civil rights activists demonstrating their opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.
Noun (1)
freedom ride (plural freedom rides)
- In the United States in the 1960s (chiefly 1961), any one of a number of trips taken by bus or other forms of transport through parts of the southern U.S., made by groups of civil rights activists demonstrating their opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.
- It is a slight miracle, I think, that in the almost two years since February of 1960 there has not been a fatality. But we have come amazingly close to it several times. Let me mention the case of William Barbee who was on the Freedom Ride when it arrived at Montgomery and met with mob violence.[…]1961, Diane Nash, “Inside the Sit-ins and Freedom Rides: Testimony of a Southern Student”, in Mathew H. Ahmann, editor, The New Negro, New York, N.Y.: Biblo and Tannen, published 1969, →OCLC, page 58
- Segregation must be stopped. It must be broken down. Those of us on the Freedom Ride will continue. No matter what happens we are dedicated to this. We will take the beatings. We are willing to accept death. We are going to keep coming until we can ride anywhere in the South.1961 (year of quotation), Rachel Tisdale, quoting James Zwerg, “The Nation Takes Notice”, in The Freedom Riders (We Shall Overcome), New York, N.Y.: Rosen Publishing Group, published 2014, →ISBN...
- A similar excursion undertaken by protesters in Australia in 1965 in opposition to unfair discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
- The year of the first Aboriginal freedom ride is the year the principal of Fineflour Central boards up a group of kids in the toilet block roof.1990, Gillian Mears, “Fineflour”, in Fineflour, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 25
- Led by young activists, black and white, who were conducting ‘freedom rides’ modelled on those of the civil rights movement in the United States, a change in attitudes was in progress which would lead in 1967 to the removal, by a large majority in a referendum, of the provision in the Constitution...1997, Peter Edwards, “Australia on the Eve of the Vietnam War”, in A Nation at War: Australian Politics, Society and Diplomacy during the Vietnam War 1965–1975 (The Official History of Australia’s...
Noun (2) capitalized: Freedom Ride
Freedom Ride (plural Freedom Rides)
- Alternative letter-case form of freedom ride.
- It is a slight miracle, I think, that in the almost two years since February of 1960 there has not been a fatality. But we have come amazingly close to it several times. Let me mention the case of William Barbee who was on the Freedom Ride when it arrived at Montgomery and met with mob violence.[…]1961, Diane Nash, “Inside the Sit-ins and Freedom Rides: Testimony of a Southern Student”, in Mathew H. Ahmann, editor, The New Negro, New York, N.Y.: Biblo and Tannen, published 1969, →OCLC, page 58
- Segregation must be stopped. It must be broken down. Those of us on the Freedom Ride will continue. No matter what happens we are dedicated to this. We will take the beatings. We are willing to accept death. We are going to keep coming until we can ride anywhere in the South.1961 (year of quotation), Rachel Tisdale, quoting James Zwerg, “The Nation Takes Notice”, in The Freedom Riders (We Shall Overcome), New York, N.Y.: Rosen Publishing Group, published 2014, →ISBN...
Examples of freedom ride in a sentence
- A Negro leader said today the "freedom riders" whose arrival here touched off race riots last Saturday will continue their test of Southern bus station segregation barriers. [...] [T]he Rev.1961 May 23, “‘Freedom ride’ must continue—Rev. King”, in Sarasota Journal, volume 10, number 27, Sarasota, Fla.: Lindsay Newspapers...
- Abbie [Hoffman] took his freedom ride at the tail end of the freedom movement.1996, Jonah Raskin, “White Mischief, Black Power”, in For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman, Berkeley; Los Angeles...
- She has written widely on questions of gender, race and ethnicity in Australian history, and is currently working on a history of the Freedom Ride of 1965.1997, “Contributors”, in Wayne Hudson, Geoffrey Bolton, editors, Creating Australia: Changing Australian History, St. Leonards, N.S.W....
Forms of freedom ride
| plural | freedom rides |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Freedom Ride |
| plural | Freedom Rides |
Words formed from freedom ride
Questions about freedom ride
- What does freedom ride mean?
- Freedom ride means in the United States in the 1960s (chiefly 1961), any one of a number of trips taken by bus or other forms of transport through parts of the southern U.S., made by groups of civil rights activists demonstrating their opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.
- How do you use freedom ride in a sentence?
- A Negro leader said today the "freedom riders" whose arrival here touched off race riots last Saturday will continue their test of Southern bus station segregation barriers. [...] [T]he Rev.
- What part of speech is freedom ride?
- Freedom ride is a noun.
- How do you pronounce freedom ride?
- Freedom ride is pronounced /ˈfɹiːdəm ˌɹaɪd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of freedom ride?
- The plural of freedom ride is freedom rides.
Words near freedom ride in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: freedom ride (page history and authors); Freedom Ride (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-freedom ride.mp3.
Cite this entry: “freedom ride.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freedom_ride. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.