Civil Rights Legend to Speak at the MacQueen Center

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Posted on April 22, 2021

Joy Washington

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Prominent civil rights activist Bob Zellner, a native of Mobile, will speak at the University of South Alabama about his life’s work of fighting for justice in the freedom movement with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Rosa Parks and many others.

The graduate of Murphy High School will speak at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, at the MacQueen Center on the main campus of South Alabama. There will be an in-person event with limited seating, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Others interested can register for the virtual event, which is free and open to the public.

As a young man growing up in the Port City, Zellner understood and knew he had to fight against Jim Crow segregation, and did so as he continued his education at Huntingdon College. While studying in Montgomery, he met King and Parks, who left an indelible mark on his life. He became the first white southerner to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, known as SNCC. He worked as a field secretary, recruiting white students into the civil rights movement. Until 1962, Zellner was SNCC’s only white field secretary.

In the wake of discussions around systemic racism and white supremacy, Zellner wants his audience to understand the importance of “keeping their eyes on the prize” while fighting for justice,”

“MLK said in his letter from the Birmingham jail, ‘all it takes for evil to succeed is for good (people) to remain silent,’” he noted. “When you see something wrong, speak up and do something. The most important lesson I received from an experienced elder was when Mrs. Rosa Parks said to me, ‘Something terrible is going to happen in front of you, and you are going to have to make a choice. Not choosing is a choice.’”

 During Zellner's talk at South, he will discuss his autobiography, “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement.” Zellner’s book has been made into a recently released motion picture film “Son of the South,” which was produced by Spike Lee, who has family roots in Alabama, and directed by Barry Alexander Brown, a native of Montgomery. The film has been released on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

USA alumnus Julian ’73 and Dr. Kim MacQueen are sponsoring this upcoming afternoon talk. They are good friends of Zellner’s and supporters of his work. The philanthropic couple donated $2 million to help build the facility where this event will be held because they wanted to support a place for alumni to gather and for events to be held that offered meaningful dialogue and social discourse. The building has been named the Julian and Kim MacQueen Center.

 “When we think about all the things that have happened around systemic racism over the many years regarding African Americans, we wanted to support an effort that brings the campus and greater community together. This event will provide an opportunity to discuss the great work of Bob Zellner and future speakers,” Julian MacQueen, founder and chairman of Innisfree Hotels, based in Pensacola, Fla., explained. “This is also a great way to share our principles of the Baha’i Faith, which considers racial prejudice America’s most challenging issue.”

Kim MacQueen is excited to join her husband in supporting this upcoming presentation.

“This is such a privilege for us to help sponsor this event as its meaning is deeply aligned with our Faith,” she said. “We are humbly honored.”

And, what will Zellner’s message be for young people and college students who want to support and fight for racial justice?

“We need college students to pick up the baton in the fight for justice,” Zellner said. “The history of the freedom movement can be seen as a series of sprints. Our nation is currently in the midst of a sprint as we respond, in the thousands, to racial injustice, police violence toward Black people, and the recent attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair presidential election. Grab the baton. It’s your leg of the race.”

Zellner also wants the entire audience to leave his talk and discussion with a new understanding of the freedom movement.

“It’s difficult to talk about race, he said. “One way to overcome fear is to practice proximity and allyship. Proximity is closeness, nearness, spending time together, and taking risks together. We also need to extend grace to everyone. We all make mistakes. We have to be vulnerable by admitting that we don’t know our nation’s history of slavery and genocide. We don’t know what people of color experience. We need to be willing to listen without objection and interruption.”

Zellner and his wife Pamela have moved back to the Gulf Coast. He is also involved in supporting several youth leadership programs to include high school and college students

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