Zellner graduated in 1981 from Northern Illinois University College of Law and clerked for a 2nd District Appellate Court justice, Chicago Magazine said. Hes smart, top of his class, and on his way to graduate school up north. He said, "I don't know." Zellner himself became a candidate in 1998 while teaching Civil Rights History at LIU in eastern Long Island. Tell me a little bit about your grandfather. There's absolutely no doubt about it. They work all over the country but right now, primarily in seven states in the. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Indianapolis (2019). (1961-1967). Zellner decides he and his friends need to actually go and attend service at the Black church where Rev. 0 likes. She also became SNCCs media relations person, helping generate support for the organization and bring it to national attention. It's amazing how they can reconcile those things. So that was the way you join the movement, by putting your body on the line.. That would be like a pitched battle. Robert J Zellner, age 62, of Oshkosh, passed away at his home on Tuesday June 21, 2022. It tells the often turbulent story of . It'. Bob Zellner graduated from Murphy High School (Alabama)|Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama in 1957. The actors did the best they could with a mediocre script. Somebody hands you a briefcase and that's the extent of SNCC. Photo by Julia Cheng. He was definitely checking me out. Born in Alabama on 5 April 1939, John Robert Zellner was the second of James Abraham Zellner and Ruby Hardy Zellners five sons. Those were people that you had to take a tremendous risk to follow them. This page was last edited on 16 May 2021, at 02:30. William Barbers Poor Peoples Campaign. These are incredible actors in this movie. I don't know. TV Shows. 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.. They were sentenced to four months in jail and fined. 1. In Zellners experience, the last thing that changes with white southerners is their rhetoric, so he judged white southerners by their deeds rather than words. It was our existenceIt was like being cast into outer darkness, because SNCC was our family in a very strong sense." Arrested 18 times in seven states, he organized in McComb, MS., Albany, GA, Danville, VA, Talladega, Montgomery, and Birmingham, AL, as well as New Haven, CT, and Boston. Zellner, a white undergraduate student who wanted to fight for the equality and rights for African-Americans, began his lifework in that moment, later becoming the first white field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. We did it 50 years ago. They resulted in a takeover basically, of our government. In the early 1990s, studying at Tulane University for a Ph.D. in History, Zellner wrote a dissertation on the southern civil rights movement. Jeanine is a Writer, Actor, member SAG/AFTRA, AEA, Podcast host, Producer, CEO VisAbleBlackWoman Productions, Certified Health Coach and Conscious Dance facilitator. 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. After two years on the SNCC staff as a field secretary for campus traveling, Bob enrolled to study Sociology as a MA and Ph.D. candidate, Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts between 1963-1965. The October League also developed a rural strategy. A veteran of the 1960s civil rights movement, she served as a recruiter for the Freedom Summer project and was co-editor of Student Voice, the student newsletter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His first campaign through SCEF was the GROW project, Grass Roots Organizing Work, in rural towns such as Laurel, Mississippi. The best result we found for your search is Bob R Zellner age 80+ in Southampton, NY in the Southampton neighborhood. Zellner was SNCCs first white field secretary. The temperature cools down. The rising sentiment in 1965 that whites should organize among whites challenged Zellner. But did you feel like it was hard gaining SNCCs trust? Edited by Ann Todd Jealous and Caroline T. Haskell. Up until 1967, Zellner worked with Ms. Ella Baker, Rev. The best result we found for your search is Linda R Zellner age 70s in Bethlehem, PA in the South Bethlehem neighborhood. 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. Raised in southern Alabama, he was the second of five boys born to Methodist minister James Abraham Zellner and school teacher Ruby Hardy Zellner. It was painful. That was incredible. 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. It reminded me of Nazi Germany. Living With Others: Challenges and Promises. At least the father and son, a reconciliation. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Zellner Has Promised Big Revelations in the Case Kathleen Zellner, in a photo she posted on Facebook. When SNCC became an all black organization in 1967, Bob and his wife Dottie joined SCEF, the Southern Conference Educational Fund to organize an anti-racism . Son of the South tells how Zellner chose to work for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the early 1960s. did bob zellner marry joanne. Select this result to view Linda R Zellner's phone number, address, and more. Soon after, he was appointed one of the first field secretaries and certainly the first Southern white one of the nascent SNCC. Zellner recruited white southerners to join the Civil Rights Movement through his role as a campus traveler. Trying to shift the destructive mentality that locked whites into racism instead of change, Bob continues to work with, among others, Rev. "Dorothy Miller Zellner." We've never dealt with basic racism and sexism of our country, and we really have to do that now. Thats what could get you killed. 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. We're here, we're here in Montgomery. His story is coming to Pensacola. Not exactly, if you consider that neither are typical white Alabamans. Bob is related to Margaret R Zellner and Linda Ann Miller. 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. He is a graduate of Denmark High School, Class of 1980. . Or was he die hard to the day he died about his stances? How could you not make a decision at that point? I want to know everything about you, man, from the time you were born till right now. He did not quite trust Zellner, a white southerner. Bob Zellner was 22 years old when he got his first taste of the civil rights movement after marching to city hall with 100 Black Burglund High School students through McComb, Mississippi, in. 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. The documentary is airing periodically on PBS through 2010. Well, the one thing that I would like to be sure of, is that young people hear about this movie. But it didnt make the final cut. I didn't know the extent to which I would and the lifelong involvement, but I knew that I was destined to do that. Robert Zellner, in a plaid shirt, conducts a GROW workshop with workers in Laurel, Mississippi, undated, Dorothy M. and Robert Zellner Papers, WHS, The rising sentiment in 1965 that whites should organize among whites challenged Zellner. I said, "Well, who's coming." It was painful. That made him a special target for the mob that greeted young Black protesters. It's like when President Obama was elected, everybody said, "Oh, we can relax now," and everybody relaxed and look what happened. Here is how to style your locks for a surfer hair look: 1. Since 2014, he also tours twice a year with Project Pilgrimage as a Traveling Historian. Bob Zellner's life is really hard to sum up in a two-hour movie, but Son of the South gives us powerful glimpse into the story of this Klansman's grandson who became a key supporter of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.. John Robert Zellner was born on April 5, 1939 in Jay, Florida and grew up in small towns throughout south Alabama. 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. He continues his activism and in April 2013 was arrested for protesting North Carolinas voter ID law. She lectures and writes frequently about the civil rights movement and co-edited Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. While in Russia, [] Shortly, Zeller wound up being hired by SNCC to conduct outreach to Southern whites. He grew up in rural Alabama, the son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members and ministers. 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. The bitterness for the stock markets intensified in his family after the 'Wall Street crash of 1929. 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. But when I was in the scene, when I was doing the cameo in the hanger scene, I was kind of into the scene, so it was not so bad. During this election, a fellow Democrat, Chuck Schumer from Brooklyn, was running for the US Senate. 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. He explained everything about the supply and demand balance issue to Robert. Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism. Detailing the efforts of her and her then husband Bob Zellner, she discusses her involvement in organizing . 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. Jewish Women's Archive. What do you hope is to take away from this, when people see this movie? 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. With Bob Zellner, Pattie Campo, Rob Stephens, Kevin A. Smith, Nancy Brown and Derick Smith in Petersburg, Virginia. Bob and his wife Dottie joined SCEF, the Southern Conference Educational Fund, to . Zellner recruited white southerners to join the Civil Rights Movement through his role as a campus traveler. How was it watching your hanging play out on camera? The street was covered with blood and broken glass. It was our existenceIt was like being cast into outer darkness, because SNCC was our family in a very strong sense.. An Evening with Bob Zellner: Civil Rights Activist is being held at Gateway Church of Christ on Feb. 25 and will feature a look at the movie based on his life, Son of the South." Bob was an organizer of the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the first white southerner to serve as Field Secretary for the . And he said, "Oh good. After working briefly in Atlanta, Zellner went to McComb, Mississippi, with Bob Moses and Chuck McDew for a SNCC planning session. From a family line of KKK members, Bob Zellner became one of the first white southerners to engage in the early civil rights movement. There were two wings in SNCC. (2013). Their work supplied the Civil Rights Movement with its most significant assets, including the power of multi-racial solidarity and grassroots organizing. 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. Like, how did he meet his wife, activist Dottie Zellner (also white and worked for SNCC)? 2. Chautauqua lecture essay. A man escaped slavery by mailing himself to freedom. And now we have to say, "Well, unfortunately we weren't able to shoot there. His continued active role in the movementnotably as one of 16 arrested with Rev. Zellners father and grandfather were Ku Klux Klan members. we loved all of that. While a young activist at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, Zellner was initially introduced to the Southern Conference Educational Fund through its longtime leader Anne Braden. 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. He suffered brain damage and post traumatic stress from the physical abuse inflicted upon him. The first white Southerner to serve as a Field Secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he worked with historical figures including John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, and Anne Braden. We are providing this brief biography for Right. 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