College Years

Zwerg studied sociology while attending Beloit College. His roommate was an African American from Alabama, Robert Carter. Zwerg recalls: "I witnessed prejudice against him... we would go to a lunch counter or a cafeteria and people would get up and leave the table. I had pledged a particular fraternity and then found out that he was not allowed in the fraternity house. I decided that his friendship was more important than that particular fraternity house, so I depledged." Because of this interaction, it evoked Zwerg to participate in an exchange program with Nashville's Fisk University, a mostly all African American school. At Fisk, he would be in the minority group, but he wanted to know what is was like to be in the minority.

Also while Zwerg was at Fisk, he met John Lewis, who was already active in the Civil Rights Movement and had participated in the first ever Freedom Ride. With the way Lewis handled himself and his commitment to the movement, Zwerg immediately liked Lewis. In 1960, Zwerg joined the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), a student organized Civil Rights activist group focused on nonviolent direct action. Lewis was already a member of SNCC.

Zwerg's first test was to buy two movie tickets and try to walk in with an African American man. Upon entering, Zwerg was hit with a monkey wrench, was knocked out cold and dragged to the edge of the sidewalk. After that incident, Zwerg decided to fully participate in the Civil Rights Movement. He participated in subsequent integration efforts at movie theaters and not moving until all of the African Americans were served their food at lunch counters.