Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks recruited Bob Zellner, a white boy from Alabama, into the Civil Rights Movement.

Zellner, a civil rights activist, was the most recent speaker in the Biever Guest Lecture Series co-sponsored by the departments of sociology and history, the Black Student Union, the Loyola Student Sociology Organization and the Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice.

He spent some time in an Albany, Georgia prison with Martin Luther King Jr. as his cellmate.

“I got to know MLK before he was a mythic figure of American history. He was a true radical who insisted on going to the roots of the problem,” he said.

Zellner’s father was a Methodist minister and a member of the Klu Klux Klan.

His parents attended Bob Jones College, named after the man who officiated at his parents’ wedding.

Until recently, the school had a long history of segregation policies.

The school also awarded U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft an honorary degree.

“You could say I came from a terrorist upbringing,” Zellner said.

He related his spur to civil rights action to an incident he experienced while attending Huntington College.

He and some fellow classmates decided to interview Martin Luther King Jr. for a sociology paper concerning race problems.

Their professor warned them against approaching King, saying they would most likely be arrested and assaulted by local Klansmen.

They were invited to attend a non-violent workshop at the Rev. Ralph Abernathy’s church, headed by King.

Police surrounded the church and arrested Zellner and others for breaking Montgomery, Ala. segregation laws.

On his return to school, the Klan burned crosses around his dorm and the president of the college asked him to leave.

He was also investigated by the state attorney general’s office. The attorney general told him that he had fallen under “commie” influence.

“He gave us a list of all the so-called communists and that’s how I knew who the good people were,” Zellner said.

Zellner came from a lineage of Klu Klux Klan members in lower Alabama and emerged as hero of the movement.

In 1961, he became the first white Southern field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.

By the time the SNCC ushered in a new era of protest in 1967, Zellner had been an active participant in campaigns such as “Freedom Summer” and the Albany Campaign in Georgia.

He was arrested 25 times in at least five states during his time with the organization.

His speech went on to address the possible upcoming war with Iraq.

“I am not going to live as an American in fear of losing my rights,” Zellner said.

Zellner argued that fundamentalists have taken over the government and recalled the voting issue of the last election, which he said President George W. Bush had stolen.

“We are not in the hands of people who are gentle with our rights,” said Zellner as he slammed his fist into the podium.

Many audience members stood up and clapped at that point.

“We are fighting terrorism with terrorism,” said Sara Lezama, a Loyola student and communications senior.

Zellner added that a war with Iraq would have devastating consequences, both economically and in the form of terrorist retaliations.

He wound down his speech by discussing the recent resignation of Republican Majority Leader Senator Trent Lott.

“Segregation is in the grave,” Zellner said. “Freedom is a constant struggle.”