Civil Rights activist Bob Zellner 'put his body on the line.' Pensacola can hear his story.

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 1961. Voter registration worker Herbert Lee had just been killed by Mississippi Rep. E. H. Hurst.

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.

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.

This month he will share the life lessons he learned during the movement with a Pensacola audience.

“I was able to integrate with SNCC staff because I went to the most dangerous places and had to be beaten and threatened with a lynching along with all the rest of the sisters and brothers in SNCC,” Zellner said. “So that was the way you join the movement, by putting your body on the line.”

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." The program is being organized by The Equity Project Alliance.

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Julian MacQueen of The Equity Project met Zellner while practicing the Baháʼí Faith in Fairhope, Alabama.

MacQueen was fascinated with Zellner’s 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.

“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.

Zellner’s father and grandfather were Ku Klux Klan members. His father, James Zellner, eventually left for Europe to support Jewish resistance in German-occupied Europe during World War II, and when he returned, he left the KKK behind.

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.

Today, MacQueen believes racism has evolved from outright racism to subtle racism such as implicit bias. 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.

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The fight has not ended for Zellner and his wife, Pamela, who still invest in their community. They work alongside Common Power, an organization that encourages civic action through community, education and investment in a next-generation of leaders. They also help organize volunteers to visit swing states during the election to register voters.

The Zellners also work with Shirts Across America out of Seattle, Washington, where they teach children history, help them become civic leaders in their communities.

“We have to know U.S. history because if we don't know where we came from we won't know where we're going,” Zellner said.

Want to go?

When: Feb. 25, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Gateway Church of Christ, 445 Creighton Road, Pensacola. To register go to Eventbrite or the Equity Project Alliance’s Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Civil Rights activist Bob Zellner to share his fight with Pensacola