Freedom Rides Down Under

Sally Helm (0:00)

The HISTORY Channel Original Podcast. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program may contain voices of people who have died.

HISTORY This Week, February 15, 1965 I'm Sally Helm.

The students decide to post sentries around the hall to guard the entrances while they sleep. They're staying tonight at a church in the small town of Walgett, Australia. Three days ago, they left the University of Sydney to travel to more rural places, trying to understand the state of Aboriginal rights in their country and to stand up for equality. They're calling it the Freedom Ride. Today, they spent the day in Walgett protesting segregation. Some important spaces in town are for whites only. They don't allow Indigenous Australians to enter. The students picket it, holding signs that said things like Walgett, Australia's disgrace. It didn't make them a lot of friends, hence the sentries. And as they're settling down to sleep, they're interrupted by the minister and the church wardens. A student documentarian, Darce Cassidy, later recounts the whole story. The minister and the warden say, you can't stay here tonight.

They say this has nothing to do with the protest. It's because boys and girls are sleeping in the same room, and they're being too loud. Also, the church people found some cans of beer. And yet, some of the students wonder if they're being punished for picketing. But they have no choice. They've got to go. They wake up the bus driver, he's sleeping in a motel, and head out onto the road. It's late at night, and as they leave town, they notice a line of cars behind them. Some students think this might be local townspeople out to get them. Others say, no, no, it's 10 o'clock, it's probably just people coming back from the bar. But then, a truck pulls up alongside the bus and crashes into its side. Once, twice, then three times. The bus careens off the road and comes to a halt. No one's hurt, but it's chaos. There are suitcases tumbled around and food fallen on the floor. When the students look up, they see headlights pointing at them from multiple directions. A mob of townspeople, they think, who have come out for payback.

A few of them scramble to find soda bottles that they can break against the back of a seat, so they'll have a piece of glass to use as a weapon.

And they ready themselves to face whoever's outside in the night.

Today, the Australian Freedom Rides. How did the US civil rights movement spark a wave of student activism on the other side of the world? And how did this dramatic confrontation on the road help catapult this student protest to national importance, changing laws and lives in Australia?

SPEAKER_3 (3:21)

Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did, and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch.

Up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.

SPEAKER_4 (3:45)

New subscribers only. Renew for 12 months to lock in savings. Taxes and fees extra. Additional restrictions apply. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

Sally Helm (3:56)

Rewind a year from that scene in Walgate.

It's May 1964 The University of Sydney is celebrating its founding on a holiday called Commemoration Day.

Ann Curthoys (4:11)

Which was this annual, what people called a muck-up day. That is when students kind of did pranks and silly things.

Sally Helm (4:18)

Ann Curthoys was a student then herself.

Ann Curthoys (4:20)

But on this occasion, they also did very political things.

Sally Helm (4:24)

Curthoys would eventually join the Freedom Ride. And years later, she'd become a history professor at the Australian National University and write a book about the Freedom Rides. And about this protest in May 1964

On that day, the students are outraged about something happening thousands of miles away. US. President Lyndon B. Johnson is trying to pass his civil rights bill. But segregationist senators are holding it up with a filibuster.

The Australian students have seen horrifying images coming out of the US civil rights movement.

Ann Curthoys (4:57)

The, you know, putting dogs onto children, that image of dogs attacking children at a civil rights demonstration, when really they weren't protesting for anything particularly surprising or dramatic, they were protesting for basic equal rights. I mean, here in Australia, as it did in other parts of the world, it really did affect people.

And so when the suggestion was made to have a demonstration, a lot of students went and joined in.