In 1965 he was one of the key members of the Freedom Ride - a bus tour through New South Wales by activists protesting discrimination against Aboriginal people in small towns in NSW, Australia.
On August 6, 1965, Charles Perkins staged a fake "kidnapping" of 5 year old Nancy Prasad from under the nose of immigration officials at the Sydney airport for the purpose of highlighting the injustice her deportation under Australia's "White Australia" immigration policy [REF].