James Zwerg (born November 28, 1939) is an American retired minister who was involved with the Freedom Riders in the early 1960s.
[3] He developed an interest in civil rights from his interactions with his roommate, Robert Carter, an African-American from Georgia.
"[5] Zwerg participated in a one-semester student exchange program in January 1961 at Nashville's Fisk University, a predominantly black school.
[1] Zwerg began attending SNCC nonviolence workshops, often playing the angry bigot in role-play.
[1] At first the bus station there was an eerie quiet, but the scene turned into an ambush, with the riders attacked from all directions.
The prostrate activist was beaten into unconsciousness somewhere around the time a man took Zwerg's head between his knees while others took turns pounding and clawing at his face.
After it seemed that the worst of the onslaught was over, Zwerg gained semi-consciousness and tried to use the handrails to the loading platform to pull himself to his feet.
He was quoted as saying "I suppose a person has to be dead before anyone will call an ambulance in Montgomery," as he lay in the hospital bed after being brutally beaten.
[1] After his beating, Zwerg claimed he had had an incredible religious experience and God helped him to not fight back.
I knew in that instance that whether I lived or died, I would be OK."[1] In a famous moving speech from his hospital room, Zwerg stated, "Segregation must be stopped.
"[8] Later in 1961, Martin Luther King presented Zwerg with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Freedom Award.
[1] He changed his career several times, including charity organization work and a stint in community relations at IBM.
[1] Zwerg retired in 1993 after which the couple built a cabin in rural New Mexico about 50 miles (80 km) from the nearest grocery store.
[1] Zwerg continues to spread awareness to this day about the trials and tribulations of the Freedom Rides and how love is what is most important.
"[10] There is a reference to Zwerg in a scene of the 1961 Soviet film Kogda derev'ya byli bol'shimi (Когда деревья были большими) (English: When the Trees Were Tall) where Inna Gulaya is an article from a U.S. newspaper describing a Freedom Riders demonstration where Zwerg: "was thrown off the bus and his face was smashed against the hot concrete of the road.