The screening was held on the 60th anniversary May 20 of the day Klan members attacked Freedom Riders in Montgomery, an incident witnessed by Zellner that led him to join the Civil Rights Movement full-time. We are providing this brief biography for, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. Tell me about what your feelings were during that situation? So Bob, tell me a little bit about meeting Barry and beginning this relationship where he's taking your story and making it into a film? A Comprehensive Document on Grass Roots Organizing Work (GROW), [1966], crmvet.org crmvet.org, Highlander, SSOC, and Organizing in the White Community: We Knew That We Were Not Free. Bob Zellner, a trailblazing civil rights activist, is the grandson of an Alabama Klansman. He put a big Wollensak recorder up on the desk and he said, "Look, brother, I want to know your life from the time you were born to right now, and it better hold out." It's like, yeah-. Famous for battles with segregationist lynch mobs, violent police, and the KKK, Zellner is also an organizer who brought Black and white Southern working people together in the GROW Project, including Klan members, on terms of equality and respect. That one small action blows up in his face, and the university threatens to expel the boys just weeks before graduation. His organizing work paid off, with working class rallies with as many as two thousand black and white people out in a cow pastureold Mississippi rednecks with the whip antennas and [George] Wallace stickers on their trucks, standing next to black folks, all of them talking about how the power structure was holding them down.61 This enticed OL leaders, among others in the NCM, to recruit Zellner for organizing Deep South trade unionists and reforming Klansmen.[3]. At the Freedom Rides Museum: SNCC field secretary Bob Zellner meets with the Forwards Robin Washington in front of the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1963, he helped integrate the library and lunch counters in the segregated mill town of Danville, Virginia, the last capitol of the Confederacy. Select this result to view Linda R Zellner's phone number, address, and more. Forman said that he hoped [his] story holds up., Zellner understood that the Civil Rights Movement belonged to young Black southerners, but he was also fighting for [his] own rights as wellI was joining the movement to establish my own right to fight for what I believed in., James Forman and Bob and Dottie Miller (Zellner) in Danville, Virginia, 1963, Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement 177, dektol.wordpress.com. It reminds me of the time Chuck McDew and I visited my brother and his wife in a small town near Knoxville, Tenn. McDew, an African American born in Massillon, Ohio, was fascinated by the jobs being held . In August 2008, the Library Journal gave the book a Red Star Review: "He tells a story that is sometimes horrific, always interesting and ultimately inspirational about a white Southerner's commitment to racial justice. At heart, Son of the South is a coming-of-age story with the Civil Rights Movement as a backdrop. Jeanine is a Writer, Actor, member SAG/AFTRA, AEA, Podcast host, Producer, CEO VisAbleBlackWoman Productions, Certified Health Coach and Conscious Dance facilitator. Administration. During the protests in McComb, a person attempted to pull out his eyeballs. it's okay, but you know M.O. Still, its as good a telling as you ever get from a major motion picture, capturing the bona fides Brown aspired to achieve. After 50 years of an entertainment industry and news media that constantly shows blatant violence against Black people nonviolently protesting its no longer shocking or surprising. During the summer of 1964 he also worked in Neshoba County with Rita Schwerner, investigating the murder of her husband, Michael Schwerner, and two other civil rights workers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. One would think a film about the civil rights movement wouldnt invite in the white savior trope, but the scene where our blonde-haired leading man carries Joanne (Lex Scott Davis), the beautiful mocha skinned Black woman in his arms (slow motion) through an angry mob of white people to safety is laughable. At twenty-two, he rode from Atlanta, Georgia to Albany Georgia on the Central Georgia Railroad on December 10, 1961. . Bob is related to Margaret R Zellner and Linda Ann Miller. The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: a White Southerner in the Freedom Movement. Sometimes when we retell the stories, we actually soft pedal the amount of violence that there was. He was untouched by the civilized world.. A few minutes later, when the songs were done, the old Freedom Rider Bernard Lafayette stepped up to Bob Zellner is a writer, known for Son of the South (2020), Breath of Freedom (2014) and Moyers & Company . During the protests in McComb, a person attempted to pull out his eyeballs. Son of the South is a biopic is based on The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, the autobiography of civil rights activist Bob Zellner (Lucas Till). In a voiceover, Zellner muses, A lot of white folks have a short fuse when it comes to civil rights. Were happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. "SNCC was our life. The first time, he witnessed the Klansmen and their sympathizers mercilessly beat the Freedom Riders in a melee made possible by the pre-arranged absence of the Montgomery police. He continues to speak publicly on civil rights and in 2008 published a memoir, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement. They were sentenced to four months in jail and fined. We need people to know that the Civil Rights Movement was led mainly by strong women, not these men that are held up in history as the leaders of the movement. Request Speaker. When his father broke away from the Klan, his mother made Sunday school shirts from the white robes. But did you feel like it was hard gaining SNCCs trust? This group, the torch that lit their fuse, was a college paper I got assigned to do with four of my friends. Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women. Bob Zellner, civil rights activist and author of The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, sent this . Zellner eventually joined SCEF and help lay the groundwork for GROW there. I thought I'd be able to go into graduate school, maybe be a minister or something and have a more normal life, but it was not a normal time. It's a coming of age movie about a white southerner involved in the Civil Rights Movement and making the decisions, how incrementally you become committed. Maybe because it concentrates on a personal journey and an authentic Alabama one, its free from the stilted, hold-your-hand language of offerings such as Ava DuVernays Selma, in which Martin Luther King is told John Lewis from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is here to see you, with Kings aides pronouncing each syllable in a slow staccato as opposed to a quick Snick that they more likely would have said, and which mainstream audiences wouldnt have likely understood. Winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award Even forty years after the civil rights movement, the transition from son and grandson of Klansmen to field secretary of SNCC seems quite a journey. Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site. To register go to Eventbrite or the Equity Project Alliances Facebook page. That's when they beat me really badly, and almost hanged me that day. With Showing Up for Racial Justice organizers in North Carolina. Zellner and O'Neal and their supporters have twice walked the 283-mile trek from North Carolina to Washington D.C. to raise awareness. They had busted all the cameras. And my father did, and he told me about it later on. Senator Jones served Alabama for two years. Zellner, of Alabama, is the grandson of a Klan member. Though threatened with expulsion for his involvement with student protests, Zellner graduated in 1961 with a degree in psychology and sociology. NewSouth Books, 2020. Always active with his wife Pamela, always on the go, he sees . After witnessing a white activist brutally beaten by police, Zeller decided to join the movement "to get my own freedom," he says. GROW built a residential educational facility in New Orleans and began organizing the Gulfcoast Pulpwood Association while working in Laurel, Mississippi where a wildcat strike involving black and white Masonite factory workers and woodcutters spread across the southern states. In December 1961, Bob took part in Freedom Rides and was subsequently jailed with Martin Luther King Jr. in Albany, Georgia. Activist Dorothy "Dottie" Miller (Zellner), who lost her shoes to high-pressure hoses after being clubbed during a demonstration in Danville, Virginia, gives an affidavit to James Forman, SNCC executive secretary. (1961-1967). * This specific fee falls within this range. During the visit McComb students organized a march to protest the murder of Herbert Lee and the expulsion of Brenda Travis and Ike Lewis from Burglund High School. Zellner recruited white southerners to join the Civil Rights Movement through his role as a campus traveler. Zellner was SNCCs first white field secretary. The men attempted to drag Zellner away from the other protesters, but Zellner clung to a railing until police finally pulled him off to arrest him, along with the other SNCC workers and 119 students. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Jealous, Ann Todd, and Caroline T. Haskell. They have also lived in Freemansburg, PA. But it didnt make the final cut. Brian Dennehy playing my grandfather. The project was also known as getting Rid of Wallace. He continues his activism and in April 2013 was arrested for protesting North Carolinas voter ID law. After teaching at Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, Bob was the first white southerner to serve as Field Secretary for SNCC ("Snick"), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bob and his wife Dottie joined SCEF, the Southern Conference Educational Fund to organize an anti-racism project for black and white workers in the Deep South . It was at these meetings that Zellner met SNCC members for the first time. Students from McCombs Burgland High School had staged a march in response to the the expulsion of Brenda Travis who had been arrested for sitting-in at the Trailways bus station. Published Feb 4, 2021. Alabama with my new wife Pamela Smith to work with Senator Doug Jones and other southern progressives to, once and for all, confront our nation's foundational history of genocide against native peoples . In the way too long Freedom Rider scene, not only does the audience witness Black women getting stomped in the street and punched in the face by white men, they get pulverized by white women using purses with bricks inside them as weapons. (2013). If he is still at it today, he nearly lost it many times in the process. Louise Palmer Zellner, 93, formerly of Emmaus Ave., Allentown, and Hellertown, passed away Thursday, February 23, 2023. The film begins with a bloodied and beaten Zellner, riding in the back of a 57 Chevy with a group of fellow sons of the South, on his way to what could be his own lynching. It's about young people and it's especially about the strength and power of women, not only in the Civil Rights Movement, but then our nation in general. He obviously started making notes, at least mental notes. Because they were instructed to prioritize urban areas like Atlanta, they relied on developing regional contacts to build their organization in the countryside. Soon after, he was appointed one of the first field secretaries and certainly the first Southern white one of the nascent SNCC. Dr. Bob Zellner was born on April 5, 1939 and raised in south Alabama, the second of five boys born to Methodist minister James Abraham Zellner and school teacher Ruby Hardy Zellner. It's Zellner who's "The Son of the South" a white preacher's kid from Alabama and the grandson of a Klansman. One is Jewish and from the North, the other Southern and the son of a Methodist minister. Meeting at a ramshackle one-room office in Mississippi, he tells Zellner (played by MacGyver reboot star Lucas Till) that everything you need is in that briefcase before lighting out to parts unknown and from the rest of the film. It's amazing how they can reconcile those things. I hope it does, and if so, I have a suggestion: Bring back the character of McDew to make a buddy show, about a Black Jewish guy from the North teamed up with the white grandson of a Klansman, working for SNCC in the most dangerous days of the movement. Later that week, Zellner views a news report that John Lewis and the Freedom Riders are coming to Alabama and rushes back to the Durrs house to warn them not to come protest, and the story takes flight. William Barbers Poor Peoples Campaign. His race proved to be useful for SNCC as he forged connections with powerful whites in rural communities that were sympathetic to their organizing. Bob's memoir, "The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement", with Constance Curry and foreword by Julian Bond, was published by New South Books in the November, 2008. They work alongside Common Power, an organization that encourages civic action through community, education and investment in a next-generation of leaders. Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism. I had met church people strong in faith, but until then I had never seen such a dedicated soldiers, he remembered. A native Southerner born in a former Klan family, Bob Zellner dedicated his life to the fight for racial equality in the Civil Rights Movement nearly sixty years ago. But the post-traumatic stress is stressful for me and also for my partner, my . I said, "Well, no, that's the same movement, but they were there earlier." He handed me the briefcase and he said, "I'll be leaving now." Just because a movie has Spike Lees name attached to it, doesnt mean its gonna be revolutionary. He's not going to reconcile with you, but you need to go see him." Over 50 years later, Mr. Zellner and his wife Dottie (who met and married working for SNCC) are still activists/organizers working with the North Carolina Forward Together Moral Movement and Rev. We loved him and he'd take us around to see Birmingham. Potomac Books, 2014. Son of the South was written, directed, and edited by Barry Alexander Brown, executive producer Spike Lee, distributed by Vertical Entertainment. Nigger-loving motherf***ing Jew communist queer Goddamn Yankee from New York City, were the words used to describe Bob Zellner as a mob of white people descended upon him with chains, bricks, lead pipes, and baseball bats on October 4, 1961, in McComb, Mississippi. At that time, the 'Duke' doctoral fellow was writing a thesis on the federal funds market. Shortly, Zeller wound up being hired by SNCC to conduct outreach to Southern whites. What went through my head was the similarity of my fellow white southerners acting like Nazis, because by the time we got there, they had busted all their suitcases and all the students had books. A paper on race relations. Kathleen graduated from the Northern Illinois University College of Law in 1981 and then worked for a 2nd District Appellate Court justice and several large law firms. This page was last edited on 16 May 2021, at 02:30. There were two wings in SNCC. The opening credits reveal a languid montage of beautiful images of the South set to music that reminded me of that TV series with Carrol OConnor (Archie Bunker from All in the Family) from the 80s In the Heat of the Night. His commitment to the Movement was continually, and often violently, tested by white supremacists. Name: Zellner, Bob (1939-) Historical Note: John Robert Zellner was born on April 5, 1939 in Jay, Florida and grew up in small towns throughout south Alabama. Movies. It's about the beginning of the movement, for me, as a white southerner. He became who he is today, someone that has always been out on the very front line taking literally the physical and mental and emotional trauma of leading society out of a segregated mindset, MacQueen said. I knew that because my father had already done a tremendous journey of leaving the Ku Klux Klan that I was destined to take a part in this somehow or another. It was our existenceIt was like being cast into outer darkness, because SNCC was our family in a very strong sense." Bob works with the Eastern Long Island Branch of the NAACP headed by Lucius Ware and with the Southampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force under the leadership of Dianne Rulnick. You can't not take a position in this. Well, what was going through my mind at that time of meeting Rosa Parks and getting to know her and Reverend Abernathy. Bob Zellner [00:00], Volume 24, Highlander, SSOC, and Organizing in the White Community: We Knew That We Were Not Free, SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference, 2010, California Newsreel, Click Here to View Document John Robert Zellner (born April 5th, 1939) was the first white southerner to serve as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Young white and free with the world ahead of him, just as soon as he finishes his final group paper on race relations. Zellner also campaigned for social justice in Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia. From 2005 to the present Bob has traveled with the Faith & Politics Congressional Tours, as a featured speaker. I just didn't want to believe that that's why, that they had a problem with the script or the situation. He said, "I don't know." He and the other members of the Equity Project Alliance believe it's important to remind everyone that the fight hasn't ended and we need to look at equity and inclusion and continue to understand how these systems are still very serious remnants of our dark past. Offering a unique perspective as a white woman in a black-led organization, she sheds light on the dynamics of race and gender in the Civil Rights Movement. Zellner was charged with everything from criminal anarchy in Baton Rouge to "inciting the black population to acts of war and violence against the white population" in Danville, VA. From 1963 to 1965, Zellner studied race relations in the Graduate School of Sociology at Brandeis University. Bob Zellner's career as a civil rights activist, beginning in 1955 as a Murphy High School student, spans nearly seven decades. At his first staff meeting, Bob joined the Burglund High School students marching to protest the murder of Herbert Lee. Zellner also Campaigned against David Duke in Louisiana when the former Klansman ran for governor claiming that he was no longer a racist. He started working for the 'Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.' ucf computer science placement exam quizlet; how to clear white gems in bejeweled blitz; swensons potato puffs; vonbee honey citron & ginger tea salad dressing recipe The beautiful thing about a biopic is that in less than two hours you can travel through a lifetime. She had moved to Wisconsin to attend 'Marquette University.' As the grandson of a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member and son of an ex-KKK Methodist preacher, Zellners potential for relatability with white southern college students made him a unique target for the lynch mobs who often terrorized SNCC travelers. Jeanine's mission, centering Black women's stories to preserve our legacies. Foreword by Julian Bond. While working on the dissertation, he taught the History of Activism at Rosemont College, PA. and Southampton College of Long Island University. 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