One of the most publicised protest actions for Aboriginal rights was the Australian Freedom Ride in 1965. This come about after the Civil Rights Movements in the United States as it inspired many Australians. The Australian Freedom Ride involved a group of students from the Sydney University touring through New South Wales, on a bus. They stopped in many country towns attempting to expose the Aboriginal discrepancies in living, health and education. With the aim being to publicise and potentially put a stop to all of the discrimination against the Aboriginal population especially in rural NSW. This included refusal of access into basic places such as the pubs, swimming pools, theatres and even hospitals. As well as being faced with over whelming verbal abuse that sometimes got out of hand and turned physical. This was very similar to the US Civil Rights Movement except theirs was in regards to African Americans whereas ours was in regards to Indigenous Australians. The African-American Civil Rights Movement was an ongoing fight …show more content…
On Monday the 15th of February 1965, only three days after the Freedom Fighters left Sydney they protested outside the Walgett RSL club. They did this for the Indigenous ex-service men of the Walgett area, as they had been told the club was not permitting their entry. Also for the Indigenous women who were forbidden from trying on dresses in a womenswear store within Walgett. Just like any other protest the Walgett 1965 protest included things like continuous chants, marching in the streets and many protestors holding up signs and waving them around. This was all very highly covered by the media. Indeed the local white Australians did not like this one bit and there were attempts of running the Sydney University Freedom Fighters bus of the road. However all this did was create more media interest including making headlines in many Newspapers around