Activist Bob Zellner talks Civil Rights with students

By Johanna Neumann, Staff Writer

“If we don’t know where we came from, we don’t know where we are going“

White Civil Rights activist Bob Zellner inspired students with his lifelong story about fighting for human rights such as freedom, equality, democracy and justice. Zellner began his fight in the 1960s by demonstrating in the civil rights movement. 50 years later he continued to take a stand when the legislature in North Carolina wanted to pass a law this past spring that required a photo ID to vote.

Bob Zellner was born in 1939 in south Alabama, or like Zellner prefers to say “lower Alabama“. His father as well as his grandfather were members of the Ku Klux Klan. “It was very unlikely that I would get involved in the Civil Rights,“ said Zellner.

According to Zellner’s biography he got engaged with SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, right after school. He majored in Sociology and Psychology at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and worked as a teacher.

“Tonight we could all be arrested in here just because black and white people are sitting together in one room,“ said Zellner at the beginning of his speech to Wingate University students last Tuesday.

His opinion about racism and equality developed Zellner in high school. Zellner said that people thought he was crazy because of his statements supporting black people. He got arrested 18 times and he said he could already see himself die, just because he stood up for people with a darker skin. The first time he got arrested was in his first demonstration, said Zellner, the last time was only this year in Raleigh, N.C.

Even though Zellner said that today we can live healthy in almost three centuries, we should never forget what our concerns are and what it is worth to fight for. “If we don’t know where we came from, we don’t know where we are going,“ said Zellner.

His memoirs and reflections are written down in his book “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek“, which will be soon be made into a movie.

Edited by Maggie McMillan