Bob Zellner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bob Zellner
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Zellner interviewed by Green Left in 2021
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| Born | April 5, 1939 Jay, Florida, U.S.
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| Education | Huntingdon College (B.A., 1961) Tulane University (PhD, 1993) |
| Known for | Civil rights activism |
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John Robert Zellner (born April 5, 1939) is an American activist who worked for civil rights. He finished college at Huntingdon College in 1961. That same year, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was their first white "field secretary," which meant he worked directly with communities.
Bob Zellner was involved in many important civil rights efforts. He helped teach people about nonviolence at Talladega College. He also joined protests for integration in Danville, Virginia. In 1964, he helped set up Freedom Schools in Greenwood, Mississippi. These schools taught Black students about their history and rights. That summer, he also helped investigate the sad murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
Zellner was arrested and hurt many times because of his activism. He left SNCC in 1967 but kept working for civil rights. Later, he taught about the civil rights movement at Long Island University. He also wrote a book about his experiences. This book was made into a movie in 2020 called Son of the South. In the movie, Lucas Till played Bob Zellner. Zellner continued his activism, even being arrested in 2013 for protesting a voter ID law in North Carolina.
Contents
Early Life and Education
John Robert Zellner was born on April 5, 1939, in Jay, Florida. His parents were James Abraham Zellner and Ruby Hardy Zellner. Some of his relatives were part of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a group that promoted white supremacy. However, his father, James, left the KKK. He became a minister in the Methodist Church and was one of the few preachers in the South who supported the civil rights movement. Many churches would not let him preach because he believed in integration.
Zellner went to W. S. Neal High School and Murphy High School. He graduated in 1957. He then went to Huntingdon College, which was an all-white school at the time. As a senior, he studied ways to solve racial problems in the South for a class project.
How Bob Zellner Became an Activist
For his project, Zellner and four friends wanted to interview civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. Their professor told them to only study from books or talk to KKK members. But Zellner and his friends did not listen. They talked to students at the Alabama State College for Negroes. They also visited the offices of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA).
The group ended up interviewing Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and E. D. Nixon. This experience made Zellner very interested in the civil rights movement. The white community did not like this. The KKK burned crosses outside his dorm. The school even suggested he be expelled. The Attorney General of Alabama accused him of being a communist.
Despite these challenges, Zellner's interest in the movement grew. In May 1961, he helped Freedom Riders who were being attacked by white supremacists. Freedom Riders were people who rode buses into the South to challenge segregation. Zellner graduated from Huntingdon later that year with degrees in psychology and sociology.
Through his meetings, Zellner learned about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This was a student-led group working for civil rights. He was hired to reach out to white people. On September 11, 1961, he became a formal volunteer. He was SNCC's first white "field secretary" and the only one for his first year.
Civil Rights Work
As a civil rights activist, Bob Zellner faced many dangers. He was badly hurt several times by white men. This happened after he protested the murder of Herbert Lee and the unfair expulsion of students from Burglund High School. Police officers and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents sometimes watched these attacks happen. For a short time, Zellner helped run a high school for students who had left Burglund in protest.
Early Arrests and Protests
On December 10, 1961, Zellner was arrested during the Albany Movement. He was sitting with an integrated group on a train, which was against the rules at the time. Hundreds of people protested his arrest. Almost 300 people marched while he and others were on trial.
In 1962, Zellner and Chuck McDew visited Dion Diamond, a Freedom Rider who was in jail in Louisiana. Zellner and McDew were arrested too. They were held for a month and charged with serious crimes. Zellner was arrested again in January 1963 at Huntingdon College. He was accused of minor offenses, but the charges were later changed. He was defended by lawyers Clifford Durr and Charles Morgan Jr. and was found not guilty.
After the Children's March in Birmingham, Alabama, turned violent in 1963, Zellner and other activists went to the city. He also attended the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
Key Activities and Investigations
Zellner was involved in many important activities. He led nonviolence workshops at Talladega College. He joined protests for integration in Danville, Virginia. In 1964, he helped organize Freedom Schools in Greenwood, Mississippi, during the Freedom Summer. During this time, he became good friends with Stokely Carmichael. He also helped investigate the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner with Rita Schwerner. In 1964, he also helped lead the Southern Student Organizing Committee.
Around 1964, Zellner took a two-year break from his civil rights work to study sociology. He did not finish his degree and returned to SNCC. By then, he was one of only seven white members still active in the group.
Later Activism and Work
He left SNCC in 1966 after the group decided to remove all white members. He then moved to the Southern Conference Educational Fund. Zellner tried to rejoin SNCC in 1967 with a plan to organize white workers in Mississippi, but he was not allowed back. He continued his project without their support. He and his wife, Dorothy Zellner, moved to the Gulf Coast. There, they started a group called Grass-Roots Organizing Workers (GROW). They also created the Deep South Education and Research Center.
Their project focused on helping pulpwood workers get better wages. A strike they organized in September 1971 was successful after three months. During the civil rights movement, Zellner was arrested many times. One report says he was arrested 25 times by the summer of 1963. In the 1970s, he gave lectures at the National Institute for Minorities in China.
From 1991 to 1993, he earned a PhD in history from Tulane University. His main project was about the civil rights movement. That same year, he was hired to teach about the civil rights movement at Long Island University. In 2008, Zellner published his book, Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement. After moving to Wilson, North Carolina, Zellner was arrested in 2013 for protesting a voter ID law.
Legacy
Bob Zellner's story is included in the 2006 book Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s by Jeff Kisseloff. Zellner later said that his time with SNCC was "the greatest thing that ever happened in my life."
His book, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, was published in 2011. This book inspired the 2020 movie Son of the South, where Lucas Till played him.
Personal Life
Zellner has been married twice. His first marriage was to Dorothy Zellner, starting on August 9, 1963. He later married Linda Miller.
