Richie's Picks: FREEDOM RIDERS: JOHN LEWIS AND JIM ZWERG ON THE FRONT LINES
OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Ann Bausum, National Geographic, January 2006
"Why did I participate in the Freedom Rides? The answer is simple. It was
the right thing to do."
--Jim Zwerg
"What's that I hear now ringing in my ears
I've heard that sound before
What's that I hear now ringing in my ears
I hear it more and more
It's the sound of freedom calling
Ringing up to the sky
It's the sound of the old ways a-falling
You can hear it if you try
You can hear it if you try"
--Phil Ochs
During the spring of 1961, Jim Zwerg boarded a train for Nashville,
Tennessee where he was signed up to participate in an exchange program at Fisk
University. He would end up meeting John Lewis and getting involved in the
Nashville Student Movement. That May, ignoring his mother's pleas not to do so,
Zwerg would join a group of brave young people and take a bus ride to end
segregation. That bus ride nearly cost Jim Zwerg his life when he and the other
so-called Freedom Riders were set upon by a mob of hundreds that had been lying
in wait for their arrival at the Montgomery, Alabama Greyhound station:
"Mob members threw him over a railing, knocked him to the ground, kicked him
in the back, and stepped on his face. Zwerg blacked out, oblivious to the
continued assault. Attackers pulled him into a headlock and punched his face.
Women pounded him with their handbags. When he slumped to the ground,
people kicked him in the groin, ribs, and face, then hauled him up to repeat the
cycle."
Hours later Zwerg was filmed for the national evening news lying in his
hospital bed. In a statement to the cameras that he wouldn't remember giving,
due to his injuries that included a concussion, he insisted:
" 'Segregation must be stopped. It must be broken down. We're going on to
New Orleans no matter what. We're dedicated to this. We'll take hitting.
We'll take beating.
"We're willing to accept death.' "
Zwerg's determination caused many people to drop what they were doing and
join the Movement.
With my having written several years ago about Christine Hill's book, JOHN
LEWIS: FROM FREEDOM RIDER TO CONGRESSMAN, I already knew much about John
Lewis, the black kid who grew up picking cotton and preaching to his
family's farmyard animals in the segregated South. John Lewis, who I am excited
to
periodically catch a glimpse of on TV doing his work as a member of the US
House of Representatives, was sitting next to Jim Zwerg on that bus heading
into Montgomery.
But I knew nothing of Zwerg, the white kid from Wisconsin who grew up -- as
I did -- so utterly removed from people of color and from the horrible daily
indignities that Lewis and millions of others regularly faced. At the time
that John Lewis, Jim Zwerg and so many others were riding that bus and risking
their lives, the Civil Rights Movement was, for me, something scary and
confusing on the evening news.
"Teach your children well"
--Graham Nash
Amidst the pages and between the lines of FREEDOM RIDERS, Ann Bausum's
latest stellar book on the lesser-known American heroes behind our nation's most
important human rights movements, I found myself anxiously seeking to discover
any lessons that might be found in regard to how Jim Zwerg was raised, that
he was willing to selflessly risk his life for the sake of people with whom
he seemed to have so little in common; that it was clear to him that he would
do the right thing.
"Great moments in any life may grow from the smallest of good intentions. I
find it's the day-to-day acts of kindness, caring, giving, and loving that
really make a difference in peoples' lives. You don't have to participate in
a sit-in or go on a Freedom Ride to make a difference. You can help make our
society and our world better. Look around you. See what needs to be done
in your school, neighborhood, city, or state. Make a decision to do something
about it. Then take action. The seemingly small 'first step' you take
today may have a profound and lasting impact for good in someone's life."
--Jim Zwerg
Part of my desire to really understand the coming of age of Jim Zwerg
results from my having been listening to eighth graders here in Sebastopol who are
presently studying Mildred Taylor's CSK Medal-winning masterpiece, THE LAND.
As my English teaching wife Shari attempts to connect the dots by
instigating discussions about the nature of tolerance and how the story of Paul
Edward
Logan and Mitchell Thomas relates to Birmingham AND Belfast AND Bagdad AND
being kind to all of the other kids on campus, whether they are seen as trendy
and popular or not, I am hearing from many of these adolescents a sense of
helplessness, cynicism, and doubt that their generation might be the one to
push humankind over the edge into a more tolerant world. I am not hearing the
sounds of freedom calling that might inspire confidence that these kids are
growing in the direction of doing the right thing.
Sure, it is developmentally appropriate for adolescents at this age to be
cynical and focused upon themselves as they strive to become individuals and
develop their own identities. But it is equally true that teens exposed to
stories of Jim Zwerg, John Lewis, and Paul Edward Logan will better understand
how anyone can be a hero by making a difference, whether large or small, that
small differences can send ripples out in all directions, and that making a
difference -- making the world a kinder, more caring, giving, loving place --
is one of the most fulfilling things one can strive to achieve.
Ann Bausum has done such an effective job of relating the stories of John
Lewis and Jim Zwerg that it makes me wish for a chance to someday personally
meet these guys.
In 80 pages containing several dozen photographs, a timeline, a resource
guide, and an unforgettable true story of heroism amidst the making of American
history, FREEDOM RIDERS: JOHN LEWIS AND JIM ZWERG ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT is a book that should be read and booktalked by
librarians and teachers everywhere.
Richie Partington
Student, SJSU SLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
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