Wrong Side of Murder Creek, The: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement

by Bob Zellner, Constance Curry (Editor), Julian Bond (Foreword by)

Overview

Winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award

Even forty years after the civil rights movement, the transition from son and grandson of Klansmen to field secretary of SNCC seems quite a journey. In the early 1960s, when Bob Zellner’s professors and classmates at a small church school in Alabama thought he was crazy for even wanting to do research on civil rights, it was nothing short of remarkable. Now, in his long-awaited memoir, 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” he had been raised on but rejected. Decades later, he is still protesting on behalf of social change and equal rights. Fortunately, he took the time, with co-author Constance Curry, to write down his memories and reflections. He was in all the campaigns and was close to all the major figures. He was beaten, arrested, and reviled by some but admired and revered by others. The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award, is Bob Zellner’s larger-than-life story, and it was worth waiting for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781588383945
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	01/15/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

BOB ZELLNER is a civil rights activist. He graduated from Huntingdon College in 1961 and that year became a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as its first white field secretary. Zellner was involved in numerous civil rights efforts, including nonviolence workshops at Talladega College, protests for integration in Danville, Virginia, and organizing Freedom Schools in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1964. He also investigated the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner that summer. He left SNCC in 1966 but continued his civil rights activism. He later taught the history of the civil rights movement at Long Island University.

JULIAN BOND has been chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors since February 1998. He is a Distinguished Scholar in the School of Government at American University in Washington, D.C., and a professor in the Department of History at the University of Virginia.

Bob Zellner (Author)
BOB ZELLNER is a civil rights activist. He graduated from Huntingdon College in 1961 and that year became a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as its first white field secretary. Zellner was involved in numerous civil rights efforts, including nonviolence workshops at Talladega College, protests for integration in Danville, Virginia, and organizing Freedom Schools in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1964. He also investigated the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner that summer. He left SNCC in 1966 but continued his civil rights activism. He later taught the history of the civil rights movement at Long Island University.

Constance Curry (With)
Atlanta-based Constance Curry (1933-2020) was a civil rights veteran and wrote several books and produced a documentary film.

Interviews

The captivating and profound testimony of a patriot who did everything he could to help make his nation a better place, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek is highly recommended. — Midwest Book Review

Editorial Reviews

If you want a taste of what life on the front lines was like in the Southern civil rights movement, you have to read this book.

Senior Women Web - Jo Freeman

[Zellner’s] words ring with an honesty often lacking in some other accounts of the times, and he recreates the culture of the 1960s with candor and humility. His book corrects many false impressions and gives the true story from someone who had a foot in both worlds, who risked his life—and his future—for what he believed in, and believes in still ... This book is an eye-opener for those old enough to remember these events, and a door to understanding for those too young to recall the shaping of the world we live in today.

The Decatur Daily - Loretta Gillespie

The captivating and profound testimony of a patriot who did everything he could to help make his nation a better place, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek is highly recommended.

Midwest Book Review

The journey white Southerners travel in this riveting memoir, from virulent racism to acceptance of blacks’ civil rights, is as momentous as any in American history. — Publishers Weekly

Source

[Zellner’s] words ring with an honesty often lacking in some other accounts of the times, and he recreates the culture of the 1960s with candor and humility. His book corrects many false impressions and gives the true story from someone who had a foot in both worlds, who risked his life—and his future—for what he believed in, and believes in still ... This book is an eye-opener for those old enough to remember these events, and a door to understanding for those too young to recall the shaping of the world we live in today. — Loretta Gillespie, The Decatur Daily

If you want a taste of what life on the front lines was like in the Southern civil rights movement, you have to read this book. — Jo Freeman, Senior Women Web

The journey white Southerners travel in this riveting memoir, from virulent racism to acceptance of blacks’ civil rights, is as momentous as any in American history. — Publishers Weekly

The captivating and profound testimony of a patriot who did everything he could to help make his nation a better place, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek is highly recommended. — Midwest Book Review

Written with Curry (Silver Rights: The Story of the Carter Family's Brace Decision To Send Their Children to an All-White School and Claim Their Civil Rights), this powerful portrait of a courageous man is highly recommended for all but the smallest libraries. — Library Journal starred review

From the Publisher

The journey white Southerners travel in this riveting memoir, from virulent racism to acceptance of blacks' civil rights, is as momentous as any in American history. Zellner moved a shorter distance-son of a progressive, integrationist minister from Alabama, he had his family's support when he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1961. A frontline participant in many civil rights battles, he was jailed, beaten, slashed, shot at by police and taken on a terrifying night ride by Klansmen as they debated whether to lynch him. He's also a canny observer of major figures in the struggle, from SNCC legend Robert Moses to segregationist stalwart George Wallace. Zellner comes off as confident, even cocky-especially in his many arguments with racist antagonists, of which he has an implausible verbatim recall-but the constant menace of howling white mobs, vicious cops and Klan terrorists takes its toll. The result is a testament both to the courage of civil rights activists and to the hatred they overcame; when Zellner survives to see white and black workers come together for a wildcat strike, it seems almost miraculous. Photos. (Oct.)

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Publishers Weekly

Zellner's memoir focuses on his experiences as a civil rights activist from 1960 to 1967. He tells a story that is sometimes horrific, always interesting, and ultimately inspirational about a white Southerner's commitment to racial justice. Born and raised in the Deep South, Zellner was profoundly influenced by his father, a Methodist minister who rejected his own Ku Klux Klan ties and encouraged his son in his growing interest in the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, Zellner became a member and ultimately a field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and participated in numerous demonstrations attacking racial discrimination. He was arrested, jailed, beaten-often savagely-shot at by police, and almost killed. Yet he remained committed to the cause of racial justice and the organizing needed to achieve it. In 1967, he and his activist wife, Dottie, were kicked out of SNCC owing to a decision to remove all whites from the organization, which he understood but was saddened by. Written with Curry (Silver Rights: The Story of the Carter Family's Brace Decision To Send Their Children to an All-White School and Claim Their Civil Rights), this powerful portrait of a courageous man is highly recommended for all but the smallest libraries.
—Anthony O. Edmonds

Library Journal