2025 Ride
On June 13, 2025, ten youth, along with their adult support team, set off from Madison, Wisconsin on a long-distance cycling journey to promote racial unity, justice, and understanding that would end fourteen days later in Montgomery, Alabama.
The youth group, made up predominantly of high school students, led community dialogues, service projects, and cultural exchanges to foster empathy, shift race conversations toward healing and collaboration, and empower young people as ambassadors of change.
Along the route, participants engaged with diverse communities by discussing topics like “othering,” colorblindness, and systemic racism, completed service activities, and visited historic civil rights sites, ultimately aiming to deepen awareness, build intercultural bonds, and inspire collective action against racial prejudice.
The term race amity was selected to highlight the
importance of recognizing our shared humanity and
working together to create a more just, inclusive,
and harmonious society. By emphasizing
cooperation, empathy, and unity between
individuals from diverse racial groups, aiming to
break down barriers of prejudice, discriminatio-
n, and division, the race amity initiative fosters
positive relationships, mutual respect, and understanding among people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The group’s message of race amity, promoted through public discourse gatherings and media coverage, actively engaged communities to be more actively aware of the topic and find renewed hope for the future. Youth, in addition to developing their public speaking skills and leadership capacity, helped communities deepen their understanding of the barriers that prevent people from building meaningful relationships across racial lines and identify practical steps for moving forward in promoting racial unity.
2025 Ride Gallery
