Cedar Rapids Freedom Ride title draws criticism for similarity to Civil Rights initiative

CEDAR RAPIDS - An official with the Freedom Festival in Cedar Rapids says organizers plan to stop referring to the Freedom Ride by that name after drawing criticism for appropriating the name of a painful Civil Rights era initiative.

Robyn Rieckhoff, Freedom Festival executive director, said the ride is actually not called the Freedom Ride, but rather the Freedom Bike Ride, so there is nothing to change. Publicity for the event, including on the Freedom Festival website, materials and 'Freedom Ride” registration forms refer to the event as 'Freedom Ride.”

'We are not changing the name,” Rieckhoff said. 'It has always been the Freedom Bike Ride. Some people shortened it over time, so we will call it the Freedom Bike Ride in all cases.”

Freedom Rides were a movement in the early 1960s, in which black and white Americans traveled by bus to test segregation laws in the South.

'Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in non-violent activism,” according to PBS.org.

A Cedar Rapids resident brought the issue to the attention of Freedom Festival staff on Sunday.

'I'm sure no ill will was meant by this unfortunate naming choice, and I assume it's far too late to change the name for this year, but I'd like to suggest you consider renaming the event for next year and all future years,” Meryn Fluker, who previously worked for The Gazette, said in an email to Rieckhoff. 'It just seems so unfortunate - not to mention poor search-engine optimization - to have what I'm sure is an uplifting event for the Cedar Rapids community share a name with such a fraught part of American history.”

Fluker noted history about the Civil Rights initiative is the first item that pops up on a search engine. Fluker said she was told by Rieckhoff they would be changing the event's name. As of Monday afternoon, the name on the website had not been changed.

The event was added to the Freedom Festival lineup in 2016. The 2017 edition was held on Sunday, billed as a 'family ride,” looping from Lowe Park in Marion to Quasqueton.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com