8/9/2019 Charles Perkins and the Freedom Rides

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Charles Perkins and the Freedom Rides

Charles Perkins was one of the most important Australian Aboriginalactivists of his and or of all time to ght for racial discrimination.

Perkins, born in 193 was brought up in Alice !prings until the age of ten when his mother gave him permission to attend an Anglican bo"s

hostel in Adelaide. #hen Perkins was 1 her worked as an apprenticetter and turner. #hen he didn$t seem keen in that eld of work, hefound a love in soccer. %e went to &ngland and pla"ed there for a few"ears onl" to turn down an o'er from (anchester )nited *C so hecould coach a team back in Adelaide. #hen Perkins was back inAustralia he +oined the *ederal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines where he was elected ice President.

-n 19 Perkins moved to !"dne" where he +oined a di'erent soccerteam and enrolled in universit". /he 190$s saw Australia becomeaware of Americas political movements and protests through television.#ith inspiration from that, Perkins could use the same techniues andspirit to do the same here for Aboriginal rights.

2n the night of *ebruar" 1th 19 after months of organising, he and9 other students, which made up the diverse group of the 4*reedom5ides6, bussed to regional 7!# to collect data and to confront peopleabout racism.

 /he aboriginal population in #ellington and 8ulargumbone weresurve"ed and the" group discovered that their views on their treatmentand living conditions were etremel" bad.

2n the 1th

 when the" arrived in #algett, the" decide to picket in frontof the 5!:. #hite Australians were allowed inside, but aboriginal troopsthat fought for the A7;AC weren$t. (an" people gathered to see whatthe commotion was about getting them the attention the" were lookingfor. &ven local aboriginals began to +oin their protest. /he herald suntook photos of the protest giving them even more media coverage.

2n leaving #algett, their bus got rammed o' the road, but there wereno in+uries. /he other bus that rammed them had a passenger who wasa reporter who noted the accident.

 /he" then proceeded to (oree, where the" met with more press and

also discussed the segregation that was happening at the localswimming pool. /he" got < aboriginal children and forcefull" allowedthem to swim with the white Australians. After that, the ban hadseemed to been broken, until later on when aboriginal volunteers triedto enter onl" to be thrown out, with then resulted in ph"sical violence.

 /he bus of 30 then travelled to :ismore, =owraville and >empse"before returning to !"dne".

After their trip, which was highl" publicised, got international mediaattention. /his is what the" were tr"ing to achieve, for people tobecome aware and to stir up political debate, which then help lead intothe 19? referendum to include aboriginal people in the census, and

8/9/2019 Charles Perkins and the Freedom Rides

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allowed the commonwealth government to make laws for aboriginalpeople.

@ Adrian =arila