James Zwerg (born November 28, 1939) is an American retired minister who was involved with the Freedom Riders in the early 1960s. (wikipedia)
For 1961 there was a picture of me in the hospital. So many people had gone through so much more. I started crying. I shouldn't be up there.
He pulled out a paperback of Dr. King's book, 'Stride Toward Freedom,' about the Montgomery bus boycott. He said, 'Read this.' He was bright enough to realize violence was not the answer.
Dr. King encouraged me to finish my education and pursue the ministry.
The movement was so much more than sitting down with a hamburger. Ultimately, we wanted to change society.
It was the most incredible period in my younger life.
By this time another group of kids had come down from Nashville. So 22 of us spent the night in the Birmingham bus station with the Klan marching around outside.
He invited me to go to church with him after the stand-ins.
We were having a celebration for the integration of the movie theaters when we got word of the bus-burning.
We had police protection all the way to Montgomery. The police plane was overhead. John was so relaxed he fell asleep.
