The Freedom Ride

The Freedom Ride, led by Charles Perkins, tours NSW towns known to practise racial discrimination. It departs from the University of Sydney. When the Freedom Ride students return a fortnight later, many Aboriginal people welcome them and their supporters, including Gordon Briscoe, Norma Briscoe, Eileen Perkins, Neville Perkins (Charles’s nephew) and Gary Williams. Gordon recalls, ‘As the Freedom Ride bus pulled up outside Charlie’s house in Glebe we had a large trestle prepared with full of food and drinks to serve the protestors and the press’. (Briscoe, p. 111)

  • Freedom Ride, bus leaving Sydney