fred shuttlesworth.oct

8/3/2019 Fred Shuttlesworth.oct

1/18

Civil Rights PioneerReverend Fred

Shuttlesworth
http://thebuzzcincy.com/files/2011/10/fred-shulttlesworth1.jpg


2/18

IN 1957,

Shuttlesworth

joined with Dr.

Martin Luther KingJr., Ralph David

Abernathy, and

Bayard Rustin to

form the SouthernChristian

Leadership

Conference (SCLC).

He also assisted

the Congress on

Racial Equality

(CORE) in

organizing the

Freedom Rides.


3/18

In his 1963

book Why

We Cant

Wait,King called

Shuttlesworth

one of the

nations themost

courageous

freedom

fighters ... a

wiry,

energetic and

indomitable

man.
http://current.com/http:/www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1281&category=Civicmakershttp://current.com/http:/www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1281&category=Civicmakers


4/18

Obama On Shuttlesworth Death:

We Owe Him A Debt Of Gratitude

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama today issued a

statement about the passing of the Rev. Fred

Shuttlesworth.

As one of the founders of the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference, Reverend Shuttlesworth

dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for

all Americans. He was a testament to the strength of

the human spirit. And today we stand on his

shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who

marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect

our union.

I will never forget having the opportunity several years ago to push Reverend

Shuttlesworth in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge a symbol

of the sacrifices that he and so many others made in the name of equality.

America owes Reverend Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude, and our thoughts

and prayers are with his wife, Sephira, and their family, friends and lovedones.


5/18

When legendary civil rights activist Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth died today,

many Americans had no idea who he was or what hed accomplished in his 89years on earth. Its an unfortunate reality that people often think Martin Luther

King, Jr. and Malcolm X were the beginning and end of black activism in the Civil

Rights era. In fact, nothing could be more wrong. From the 1950s onward,

Shuttlesworth was a major factor in ending Jim Crow laws in the South, and

many other oppressive forces throughout the United States. Here are the top

five things you should know about him.

FIVE THINGS

YOU SHOULD

KNOW ABOUT

FRED

SHUTTLESWORTH
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/30vYpc/www.good.is/post/five-things-you-should-know-about-fred-shuttlesworth/


6/18

ONE From the start of his career,Shuttlesworth, who was raised poor in Alabama,

was fiery and obstinate. After Alabama officially

banned the NAACP from operating within the

state in 1956, Shuttlesworth, then a pastor,

founded the Alabama Christian Movement for

Human Rights. The ACMHRs first major order of

business was a Birmingham bus sit-in, during

which Shuttlesworth and others boarded city

buses and sat in the whites only sections. TheACMHR would eventually become charter

member organization in the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference


7/18

TWO He lived nearly nine decades, but many

people tried to kill Shuttlesworth much earlier for hisoutspokenness. He was the target of two bomb

attacks, one on his home and one on his church. And

when Shuttlesworth tried to enroll his daughters in an

all-white Birmingham school in 1957, an armed mobattacked him, beating him unconscious and stabbing

his wife. The couple survived, and when a doctor

remarked that Shuttlesworth was lucky to have

avoided a concussion, Shuttlesworth said, Doctor,

the Lord knew I lived in a hard town, so he gave me a

hard head.
http://fredshuttlesworthfoundation.org/about.htmlhttp://fredshuttlesworthfoundation.org/about.html


8/18

THREE Though he worked closely with King,Shuttlesworths style was decidedly different. Among

the youthful elders of the movement, historian DianeMcWhorter told The New York Times, he was Martin

Luther Kings most effective and insistent foil: blunt

where King was soothing, driven where King was

leisurely, and most important, confrontational whereKing was conciliatorymeaning, critically, that he was

more upsetting than King in the eyes of the white public.

Despite their differences, King once called

Shuttlesworththe most courageous civil rights fighter in

the South.Jan. 18, 1965: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, center, kicks off a voter registration drive at the

Dallas Co. Courthouse in Selma. With King are the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, left;

the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, right; and the Rev. Andrew Young, far right.

News file/Ed Jones
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/rev-fred-l-shuttlesworth-civil-rights-leader-dies-at-89.html?hphttp://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-rev-fred-shuttlesworth/http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-rev-fred-shuttlesworth/http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-rev-fred-shuttlesworth/http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-rev-fred-shuttlesworth/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/rev-fred-l-shuttlesworth-civil-rights-leader-dies-at-89.html?hp


9/18

FOURShuttlesworths fiercest enemy in

Birmingham was infamous public safety commissionerBull Connor. Connors violent responsesattack dogs,

fire hoses, billy clubsto Shuttlesworths peaceful

demonstrations were integral in changing Americas

attitude about Jim Crow. The televised images of

Connor directing handlers of police dogs to attack

unarmed demonstrators and firefighters using hoses

to knock down children had a profound effect on

American citizens view of the civil rights struggle,

says the Shuttlesworth Foundations website.


10/18

FIVEAfter his actions helped spawn the passageof the federal Civil Rights Act in 1964,

Shuttlesworth continued fighting for justice inrealms both racial and economic. In 1988 he

founded the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation to

help low-income families own their own homes,

and in 2004 he became president of the SCLC. A

firebrand to the end, he resigned from the SCLC

within months, saying deceit, mistrust and a lack

of spiritual discipline and truth have eaten at the

core of this once-hallowed organization. Three

years ago, the city of Birmingham named its airport

after Shuttlesworth. There are still no monuments

named after Bull Connor.


11/18

On left: Bethel Baptist Church.

On right: The bombed Shuttlesworth home.Shuttlesworthannounced

that the

ACMHR would

challengesegregation

laws in

Birmingham on

December 26,

1956.

OnDecember 25,

1956,

unknown

persons tried

to kill

Shuttlesworth

by placing sixteen sticks of dynamite under his bedroom window. Shuttlesworth somehow

escaped unhurt even though his house was heavily damaged. A police officer, who also

belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, told Shuttlesworth as he came out of his home, "If I were you

I'd get out of town as quick as I could." Shuttlesworth told him to tell the Klan that he was

not leaving and "I wasn't saved to run."


12/18

Years before the

Freedom Riders boarded

buses on May 4, 1961,

bus integration laws

were being tested in theSouth. Six days after the

U.S. Supreme Court

ruled that Montgomery

city buses must

integrate, the Rev. Fred

Shuttlesworth and

others challenged the

law in Birmingham, Ala.,

by joining white

passengers on a city

bus, Dec. 26, 1956.

Shuttlesworth boarded

the bus hours after a

bomb exploded inside

his Collegeville, Ala.,

house.AP Photo/The BirminghamNews, Robt. Adams)


13/18

Shuttlesworth informed the media of his plans to integrate the waiting rooms

and was followed by reporters, photographers and a white mob estimated at

more than 100. After being told that he was not wanted inside, Shuttlesworth

replied: "It's not up to you to tell me where to go."(AP Photo/The Birmingham News, Robt.

Adams)

The Rev. FredShuttlesworth, right,

is stopped before

entering the whitesonly waiting room

at the Bus Terminal

March 6, 1957, in

Birmingham, Ala.

This photo wasmade one day after

the Alabama Public

Service Commission

ruled that the

waiting rooms must

remain segregated.


14/18

As some of the riders werereleased from the hospital,

they gathered at the

Greyhound Terminal in the

bus station in Birmingham,Ala., on May 15, 1961, to

discuss what to do next. At

the urging of injured Rider,

James Peck, the group

decided to continue on

their original route but

drivers refused to operate

the bus for fear of future

violence. The Rev. Fred

Shuttlesworth (center) and

Freedom Riders discussed

plans after drivers refused

to carry them any farther.

Surrounding Shuttlesworth, clockwise from left: Ed Blankenheim, kneeling,

Charles Person, Ike Reynolds, James Peck, Rev. Benjamin Cox, and two

unidentified Freedom Riders. AP Photo/The Birmingham News)


15/18

The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth (pointing), Birmingham integration leader, talks with

students in the white waiting room on Wednesday, May 18, 1961 in Birmingham bus

station. At right is Mary McCollum, 21, of Snyder, N.Y., a student at Peabody College in

Nashville, Tenn., center Lucretia Collins, 21, Fairbanks, Alaska, left two unknown .(AP Photo)

On May 18, 1961,in the middle of the

night, Bull Connor

takes the Freedom

Riders out of jail,drives them to the

state line and drops

the Freedom Riders

off near a train

station. TheFreedom Riders

make their way

back to the bus

station in

Birmingham thenext day.


16/18

Eugene "Bull" Connor, former Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner and fiery

segregationist, seen here during a speech in to the Tuscaloosa County White Citizens

Council in Tuscaloosa, Ala., June 8, 1963. Connor was urging the audience to stay awayfrom the University of Alabama campus June 11, when two African Americans are

scheduled to enroll. (AP Photo/William A. Smith


17/18

Members of the Birmingham Police Department and Birmingham Fire and Rescue

escort Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth's casket and family members from Bethel Baptist

Church to the new Bethel Baptist Church in the Collegeville neighborhood of

Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011.

Birmingham Alabama Farewell to Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth


18/18

November 14,

1992, the City

of Birmingham

dedicated an 8 ft. tall

bronze statue

of Rev.

Shuttlesworth

at the openingof the

Birmingham

Civil Rights

Institute.

In January, 2000, Rev. Shuttlesworth received the highest award given to a private

citizen, the Presidential Citizens Award, from President Bill Clinton at the White

House. In June, 2004, Rev. Shutttlesworth received the second highest award given

to a private citizen, the Jefferson Award, in Washington, D.C.

fred shuttlesworth.oct

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