His first campaign through SCEF was the GROW project, Grass Roots Organizing Work, in rural towns such as Laurel, Mississippi. But I think what it's done, is it's exposed to the racism that was always there. Bob Zellner, Bernice Reagon, Cordell Reagon, Dottie Miller (Zellner), and Avon Rollins singing in Danville, Virginia, June 1963, Danny Lyon, Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement 66, dektol.wordpress.com, This campus activism caused Anne Braden to contact him. They have also lived in Freemansburg, PA. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Well, what was going through my mind at that time of meeting Rosa Parks and getting to know her and Reverend Abernathy. Voter registration worker Herbert Lee had just been killed by Mississippi Rep. E. H. Hurst. While focusing on breaking the hold of George Wallace and the KKK on poor and working-class white people across the south, Bob Zellner debated George Wallace at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts when Wallace ran for president in 1968. Carol Ann thinks that Rosa Parks and the Durrs were overstepping trying to recruit them into the civil rights movement, but Zellner flashes back (within the flashback) to a time where he was pressured to brutalize some Black folks. After his eighteenth arrest, Bob and his partner, Elizabeth Pamela Smith have moved back to his home state of Alabama, where they worked to elect Senator Doug Jones and support the work of EJI, Bryan Stevensons Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery. We've never dealt with basic racism and sexism of our country, and we really have to do that now. It was our existenceIt was like being cast into outer darkness, because SNCC was our family in a very strong sense." I'm going back to school." Its Zellner whos The Son of the South a white preachers kid from Alabama and the grandson of a Klansman. Meeting them then and now was Zellner. It's like, yeah-. Yeah. When he was able to take the book and the whole story and figure it out, what is manageable in terms of the movie. Zellner, Bob, and Constance Curry. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Indianapolis (2019). He received his PhD at the age of 24 years. I don't know. Zellner brings his girlfriend Carol Ann (Lucy Hale) along. That's a tough thing. Top 3 Results for Bob Zellner. Accueil Uncategorized did bob zellner marry joanne. At twenty-two, he rode from Atlanta, Georgia to Albany Georgia on the Central Georgia Railroad on December 10, 1961. Those with a casual knowledge of the movement may be misled by the stereotypes of names and geographies to assume that Zellner is the Northern Jew and McDew a Black Southerner. We're here, we're here in Montgomery. . That's was very hard to see. 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. He is the son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members, but has risked his life in the fight to achieve The Second Emancipation. Hence, Robert began searching for a new research fellowship program. After spending the following summer at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, Zellner was hired by SNCC to recruit white students for the movement, a position sponsored by a grant from the Southern Conference Education Fund. The courage and vision that they shared of a world not stunted by racism inspired me. The story of these lynchings is told in the motion picture Mississippi Burning. How scary was that? The series chronicled the life of Kathleen's client, murder convict Steven Avery. The son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members, Zellner may have been the unlikeliest of allies to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. A more interesting aspect of Zellners story to explore is why do white people have to dominate other cultures and what does it really take for a white man to disrupt a system that nourishes him? Like, how did he meet his wife, activist Dottie Zellner (also white and worked for SNCC)? I had met church people strong in faith, but until then I had never seen such a dedicated soldiers, he remembered. Hes got the steady girlfriend and a motley crew of college buddies. Zellner attended W.S. Alas, thats the line left out of the movie, with McDews character cut out at that point. I said, "Well, who's coming." Later, Robert began operating as an independent speculator and eventually became the CEO of 'CitiCorp Futures Inc.' and 'CitiCorp Options.' While attending Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabamaan all-white Methodist schoolZellner was given a sociology assignment to research solutions to racial problems in the South. Bob Zellner, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek (Montgomery: New South Books, 2008). It got me into thinking about nonviolence. They have a daughter named Anne Zellner, who is a lawyer at the firm 'Ryley Carlock & Applewhite' in Denver. Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism. At least the father and son, a reconciliation. Yeah, well, there was both the moral and the practical aspects of it. Their work supplied the Civil Rights Movement with its most significant assets, including the power of multi-racial solidarity and grassroots organizing. (2008) edited by Constance Curry and forward by Julian Bond. 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. I liked him because he was the perfect good ole white boy, a teetotal white country boy, with the accent and the background of the real rural South. School of Social Service As co-editor of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committees newsletter, the Student Voice, Dorothy Miller Zellner helped craft the organizations message and report on stories suppressed by the mainstream media. 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. Witnessing History: Former SNCC field secretary Bob Zellner stands next to a poster of Son of the South, a film about his work in the Civil Rights Movement, at a screening in Montgomery, Alabama. John Robert Zellner was born on April 5, 1939 in Jay, Florida and grew up in small towns throughout south Alabama. The street was covered with blood and broken glass. He took a very courageous stand in 2008 and now have things that have gone so far backwards that he's not able to invite this film crew back to Huntingdon to shoot on the campus. 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. Julian MacQueen of The Equity Project met Zellner while practicing the Bah Faith in Fairhope, Alabama. He ran as a Democrat in District #1 (heavily GOP) for New York State Senate. Robert and Kathleen married soon after her first semester ended. As soon as I met Barry, I got his whole story. He also serves as an organizational consultant for Shirts Across America (SAA), a Youth leadership organization. To avoid shifting to a disturbed nation, he started to search for academic courses in America. 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. In the movie treatment, however, McDew is less expansive. In 1962, Zellner organized workshops on nonviolence for students at Talladega College in Alabama, preparing students for lunch counter sit-ins and marches. After that, Robert ventured into the field of share market and business, which was an objectionable profession in his family in the past. 2022 Son of The South Owner, LLC All rights reserved. One Dream: The March on Washington. If we had shown arms and openly been prepared to fight with arms, we would have been wiped out. It's really virulent here in the South, and it's easy to revert to that. This month he will share the life lessons he learned during the movement with a Pensacola audience. He said, "I don't know." Although he occasionally uses a broad brush dipped in primary colors while fashioning his admiring portrait of Bob Zellner, the grandson of a Ku Klux Klansman who improbably evolved into a civil . Senator Jones served Alabama for two years. Till is known for his work in CBS reboot of "MacGyver" and the movie "X-Men . It tells the often turbulent story of . Roberts grandfather had acquired a lot of wealth through speculation back in the 1920s and the 1930s, but Robert's father never liked the profession. How could you not get involved with that? Zellner was arrested, severely beaten and taken out of jail by a mob, who put a rope around his neck and told him he was going to be hanged. The documentary is airing periodically on PBS through 2010. Turns out, Bob Zellners granddaddy is a head Klansman and is part of the posse. I mean, it is the devil you know? I said, "Well, no, that's the same movement, but they were there earlier." A paper on race relations. It was our existenceIt was like being cast into outer darkness, because SNCC was our family in a very strong sense., Zellner eventually joined SCEF and help lay the groundwork for GROW there. SNCC was our life. When he and his wife Dorothy "Dottie" Zellner presented the proposal for a "GROW" (Grassroots Organizing Work) project, it was turned down. and his wife they . Left largely unexplored is McDew, Black and Jewish from Ohio and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in its earliest, and most dangerous, days, who died in 2018. He got the character right away and he's really good looking, much better than me, but everybody says there's a faint resemblance between the young me and Lucas Till. She had moved to Wisconsin to attend 'Marquette University.' It's hard to separate because they're your family. Once the opening credits finally end, the film flashes back to the previous year. The script called for him to needle Zellner about being white and regard him with suspicion until Zellner proved himself, something the real McDew didnt agree to because it just wasnt true, both Brown and the real Zellner told me. 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. How could you not make a decision at that point? MacQueen was fascinated with Zellners ability to get out of his comfort zone and overcome the fear and social stigma that was so strong at that time, enabling him to stand up for something that he saw was so clearly wrong. But Granddaddy lived until about 93. While in Russia, he lived and worked with a group of black gospel singers who were also helping the resistance, and when he returned to the United States, he repudiated his racist beliefs. Jim Forman arrived a week later with a tape recorder. They work alongside Common Power, an organization that encourages civic action through community, education and investment in a next-generation of leaders. The most emotional part was when I saw the actors taking Lucas Till, the actor that plays me, taking him out of the car to take him down to the tree. "Dorothy Miller Zellner." Tell me a little bit about your grandfather. (Viewed on March 2, 2023) . I said, "I'm, Bob Zellner. It's very sad that Huntingdon College, where a huge part of the script takes place, that they weren't able to bring themselves to welcome us to shoot on the campus. 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. Hes smart, top of his class, and on his way to graduate school up north. There was a time in American cinema where the portrayal of Black bodies being brutalized by white racists was shocking. Wikitia is not affiliated to Wikimedia Foundation, Honorary Doctor of Laws, St. Joseph College, New York (2002). "SNCC was our life. He was interested in my story and I started telling him stories about SNCC and working in Alabama and Mississippi. Trump and the others want to bring racism back to the open, so that's a good thing. Zellners peers and teacher remind him of the risks of going to a Black church, but Zellner blows everyone off and convinces his four classmates to attend the service with him. Because President West, Cam West, had taken a very courageous stand when the book came out in 2008. That brought back a lot of emotion to me. It's amazing how they can reconcile those things. 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. He's an extremely good actor, and he really gets it. Memorial services will be at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday,. 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. Happy Womens History Month! From a family line of KKK members, Bob Zellner became one of the first white southerners to engage in the early civil rights movement. Disowned by his family, his father became a minister and implemented his teachings into his own family, taking a major trip from being a southern racist to being a human being, Zellner described. He was not just white, but from Alabama, and his father and grandfather had been members of the Ku Klux Klan. He grew up in rural Alabama, the son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members and ministers. He invited me back to campus. That's a positive thing, because as long as it's hidden, we're not dealing with it, but now it's so open, that we have no choice but to deal with it. All of us SNCC was in that one briefcase. 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. Fee Range $20,001 - $30,000 *. we loved all of that. Zellner tells how one white Alabamian joined ranks with the Black students who were sitting-in, marching, fighting, and sometimes dying to challenge the Southern "way of life." . Thats what could get you killed. 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