Freedom Rider Hero
Available on the Abagond Wordpress website, this photo of freedom rider James Zwerg was taken in 1961 after he was almost beaten to death by a mob in Montgomery, Alabama. James Zwerg is laying in the hospital bed with two black eyes and holding a newspaper that has a picture of him on the front page. Through selective positioning , ethos, and movement this photo brings to focus that during the civil rights movement, the white people that were trying to help the change were being beaten down and harmed just like the blacks were.
The main focus of the photograph is obviously James laying in the bed holding a newspaper. The picture is in black and route because back in those days they didn't have colored photos. He looks to be in extreme pain, James appears to be asleep but with both of his eyes being bruised shut the viewer of the picture wouldn't really be able to tell.
James Zwerg was drawn yup the civil rights movement by hanging out with his African-American roommate at Beloit College in Wisconsin. He was appalled by the way his roommate was being treated when they went out. So to see how it felt to be a minority, he went to Fisk University, an all-black college in Nashville, Tennessee. The night before eighteen black and white students, including James, went down to Montgomery, Alabama to freedom ride in order to try and change transportation segregation laws; he prayed for his safety and for the strength not to fight back. Once the greyhound bus arrived in Montgomery, all they could see was men holding bats and clubs. James volunteered to step off the bus first. The mob flocked toward him as he got off of the bus. They called him all types of names like nigger lover and monkey lover add they dragged him away, all he did was now his head and pray. One man took Zwerg's suitcase and bear him in the face and another man pinged him down while other people would take turns going at him. The mob beat him to a point of...