2025 Ride Gallery &
Youth Vision Statement

Society often speaks about youth in ways that diminish them—calling them distracted, apathetic, entitled, or unprepared. These stereotypes may be said in humor, but they have real consequences. When young people repeatedly hear what they lack, many begin to believe those limitations are true. Their talents go unseen, their voice grows quiet, and their confidence shrinks before it ever has a chance to rise.

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At Riders for Race Amity (R4RA), we challenge these narratives. We believe that young people possess tremendous capacity: courage, compassion, endurance, clarity of thought, adaptability, and a natural hunger for justice and unity. When adults stop defining youth by what society says is wrong with them, we start to see the extraordinary gifts that have been there all along.

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R4RA is built on a simple but powerful commitment:
We will believe in these youth until they believe in themselves.

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Our adult team does not stand in front of the youth—we stand beside them. We step back so they can step forward. We create the structure, safety, and spiritual environment, and then we allow them to soar.

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During the 2025 ride—from Madison to Montgomery—our youth proved what becomes possible when they are trusted with real purpose. They led nine public discourse gatherings across ten cities, initiated thoughtful conversations on “othering,” color blindness, and systemic racism, delivered presentations that moved audiences to standing ovations, served communities across four states, and built friendships across racial and cultural lines. They facilitated devotional gatherings, partnered with civic organizations, and approached difficult histories with maturity, reverence, and insight. They became ambassadors of unity, not someday—but right then and there.

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This is the transformation at the heart of R4RA:
Learners become leaders. Observers become bridge-builders. Youth become agents of racial unity.

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And they do it not through lectures or theory, but through service, reflection, riding across hundreds of miles, praying together, engaging communities in dialogue, learning from civil rights history, and discovering that they are capable of far more than society imagines.

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Riders for Race Amity is more than a cycling journey.
It is a capacity-building program designed to elevate three generations at once:

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• 7th–8th graders — emerging participants, learning how to reflect, listen, and serve

• 9th–12th graders — facilitators and lead presenters, guiding dialogues and community conversations

• 18–25-year-olds — junior mentors modeling character, service, and responsibility

• Adults — spiritual support, logistics, and the humility to step aside so youth can rise

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In R4RA, youth discover their voice, their purpose, and their power to shape narratives on race with clarity, integrity, and hope. Adults walk away transformed as well—witnessing firsthand that young people are not the problem society jokes about, but the solution our communities urgently need.

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If you want your youth to experience profound growth, service, leadership, and intercultural friendship—if you want them to stand in historic spaces, engage in courageous conversations, and help reshape how America talks about race—then we invite you to join us for the 2026 ride.

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And if you are an adult who believes in this vision, we invite you to come along.
Not to lead the youth—
but to lift them, protect them, cheer for them, and believe in them
until they believe in themselves.

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Read more about youth, how society perceives them and the capacities and characteristics we recognize in the youth of the world.

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