Six decades after he became one of the few white Southerners to join the front lines of the civil rights movement, Bob Zellner is still working full time — and he says he has no plans to stop.
The 83-year-old Alabama native, who lives in Fairhope, spends his days consulting rather than resting. “We do consulting with universities, colleges, political campaigns, and also people who are writing history, so that’s what we do full time,” Zellner said.
A Partnership on the Road
Zellner works alongside his wife, Pamela Smith. The pair take assignments across the country but are currently concentrated in seven states across the South and Midwest — states Zellner describes as closely divided politically. He frames the current moment as a new chapter in the civil rights struggle rather than a coda to the old one.
His central concern, he says, is access to the ballot box. “So there’s a group in our country who want to do away with voting,” Zellner said. “That means doing away with democracy, but the majority don’t want that. And we’re about the business of organizing that majority to take back its power.”
From Murphy High to the Movement
Zellner’s own history is well documented. A graduate of Murphy High School in Mobile, he wrote about his experience as a white Alabamian who joined the movement in his memoir The Wrong Side of Murder Creek. The film Son of the South was adapted from that book.
He says the anxiety of the movement’s peak years feels familiar today. Asked whether he has considered slowing down, Zellner offered a comparison drawn from an older era.
“I’ve tried to actually stop, but you can’t,” he said. “We’re like the old horses that used to pull the fire engine — when the bell rings you charge out of the stable and go to where the fire is.”
By his account, there is no shortage of fires left to answer.