Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth , born
Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S.
civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in
Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was instrumental in the 1963
Birmingham Campaign, and continued to work against racism and for alleviation of the problems of the homeless in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he took up a pastorate in 1961.
[1]
He returned to Birmingham after his retirement in 2007. He helped
Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, and was given
an acceptance award to visit Dr. King anytime during the movement.
The
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was named in his honor in 2008.
(March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011)
Early life
Born in
Mount Meigs, Alabama, Shuttlesworth became pastor of the
Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953 and was Membership Chairman of the Alabama state chapter of the
NAACP in 1956, when the State of
Alabama formally outlawed it from operating within the state. In May 1956 Shuttlesworth and
Ed Gardner established the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to take up the work formerly done by the NAACP.
The ACMHR raised almost all of its funds from local sources at mass
meetings. It used both litigation and direct action to pursue its goals.
When the authorities ignored the ACMHR's demand that the City hire
black police officers, the organization sued. Similarly, when the
United States Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that bus
segregation in
Montgomery, Alabama, was
unconstitutional, Shuttlesworth announced that the ACMHR would challenge segregation laws in Birmingham on December 26, 1956.
On December 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."
Fred Shuttlesworth led a group that integrated Birmingham's buses the
next day, then sued after police arrested twenty-one passengers. His
congregation built a new parsonage for him and posted sentries outside
his house.
[1]
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Shuttlesworth pastored Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to 1961. The
church served as headquarters and a frequent meeting place for the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), which Shuttlesworth
founded in 1956. The man and his church endured three bombings, the
first on December 25, 1956.
In 1957 Shuttlesworth, along with Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev.
Ralph Abernathy from Montgomery, Rev.
Joseph Lowery from
Mobile, Alabama, Rev.
T. J. Jemison from
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rev.
C. K. Steele from
Tallahassee, Florida, Rev. A. L. Davis from
New Orleans, Louisiana,
Bayard Rustin and
Ella Baker founded the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration, later renamed the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC adopted a motto to underscore its commitment to
nonviolence: "Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed."
Shuttlesworth embraced that philosophy, even though his own
personality was combative, headstrong and sometimes blunt-spoken to the
point that he frequently antagonized his colleagues in the
movement
as well as his opponents. He was not shy in asking King to take a more
active role in leading the fight against segregation and warning that
history would not look kindly on those who gave "flowery speeches" but
did not act on them. He alienated some members of his congregation by
devoting as much time as he did to the civil rights movement, at the
expense of weddings, funerals, and other ordinary church functions.
As a result, in 1961 Shuttlesworth moved to
Cincinnati, Ohio,
to take up the pastorage of the Revelation Baptist Church. He remained
intensely involved in the Birmingham struggle after moving to
Cincinnati, and frequently returned to help lead actions.
Shuttlesworth was apparently personally fearless, even though he was
aware of the risks he ran. Other committed activists were scared off or
mystified by his willingness to accept the risk of death. Shuttlesworth
himself vowed to "kill segregation or be killed by it".
[1]
Murder attempts
When Shuttlesworth and his wife Ruby attempted to enroll their
children in a previously all-white public school in Birmingham in 1957, a
mob of Klansmen attacked them, with the police nowhere to be seen. His
assailants included
Bobby Frank Cherry,who had been involved in the
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.
The mob beat him with chains and brass knuckles in the street while
someone stabbed his wife. Shuttlesworth drove himself and his wife to
the hospital where he told his kids to always forgive.
In 1958 Shuttlesworth survived another attempt on his life. A church
member standing guard saw a bomb and quickly moved it to the street
before it went off.
[1]
The Freedom Rides
Shuttlesworth participated in the
sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in 1960 and took part in the organization and completion of the
Freedom Rides in 1961.
Shuttlesworth originally warned that Alabama was extremely volatile
when he was consulted before the Freedom Rides began. Shuttlesworth
noted that he respected the courage of the activists proposing the Rides
but that he felt other actions could be taken to accelerate the Civil
Rights Movement that would be less dangerous.
[2] However, the planners of the Rides were undeterred and decided to continue preparing.
After it became certain that the Freedom Rides were to be carried out, Shuttlesworth worked with the
Congress of Racial Equality to organize the Rides
[3] and became engaged with ensuring the success of the rides, especially during their stint in Alabama.
[4]
Shuttlesworth mobilized some of his fellow clergy to assist the rides.
After the Riders were badly beaten and nearly killed in Birmingham and
Anniston during the Rides, he sent deacons to pick up the Riders from a
hospital in Anniston. He himself had been brutalized earlier in the day
and had faced down the threat of being thrown out of the hospital by the
hospital superintendent.
[5]
Shuttlesworth took in the Freedom Riders at the Bethel Baptist Church,
allowing them to recuperate after the violence that had occurred earlier
in the day.
[6]
The violence in Anniston and Birmingham almost led to a quick end to
the Freedom Rides. However, the actions of supporters like Shuttlesworth
gave James Farmer, the leader of C.O.R.E., which had originally
organized the Freedom Rides, and other activists the courage to press
forward.
[7] After the violence that occurred in Alabama but before the Freedom Riders could move on, Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy gave Shuttlesworth his personal phone number in case the Freedom Riders needed federal support.
[8]
When Shuttlesworth prepared the Riders to leave Birmingham and they
reached the Greyhound Terminal, the Riders found themselves stranded as
no bus driver was willing to drive the controversial group into
Mississippi.
[8] Shuttlesworth stuck with the Riders
[9] and called Kennedy.
[8]
Prompted by Shuttlesworth, Kennedy tried to find a replacement bus
driver. Unfortunately, his efforts eventually proved unsuccessful. The
Riders then decided to take a plane to New Orleans (where they had
planned on finishing the Rides) and were assisted by Shuttlesworth in
getting to the airport and onto the plane.
[10]
Shuttlesworth’s commitment to the Freedom Rides was highlighted by
Diane Nash, a student activist and major organizer of the later waves of
Rides, as she noted, “Fred was practically a legend. I think it was
important – for me, definitely, and for a city of people who were
carrying on a movement – for there to be somebody that really
represented strength, and that’s certainly what Fred did. He would not
back down, and you could count on it. He would not sell out, [and] you
could count on that.”
[1]
The students involved in the Rides appreciated Shuttlesworth's
commitment to the principals of the Freedom Rides – ending the
segregationist laws of the Jim Crow South. Shuttlesworth's fervent
passion for equality made him a role model to many of the Riders.
[1]
Project C
Shuttlesworth invited SCLC and Dr. King to come to Birmingham in 1963
to lead the campaign to desegregate it through mass demonstrations–what
Shuttlesworth called "Project C", the "C" standing for "confrontation".
While Shuttlesworth was willing to negotiate with political and
business leaders for peaceful abandonment of segregation, he believed,
with good reason, that they would not take any steps that they were not
forced to take. He suspected their promises could not be trusted on
until they acted on them.
One of the 1963 demonstrations he led resulted in Shuttlesworth's
being convicted of parading without a permit from the City Commission.
On appeals the case reached the US Supreme Court. In its 1969 decision
of
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham,
the Supreme Court reversed Shuttlesworth's conviction. They determined
circumstances indicated that the parade permit was denied not to control
traffic, as the state contended, but to censor ideas.
In 1963 Shuttlesworth was set on provoking a crisis that would force
the authorities and business leaders to recalculate the cost of
segregation. He was helped immeasurably by
Eugene "Bull" Connor,
the Commissioner of Public Safety and most powerful public official in
Birmingham, who used Klan groups to heighten violence against blacks in
the city. Even as the business class was beginning to see the end of
segregation, Connor was determined to maintain it. While Connor's direct
police tactics intimidated black citizens of Birmingham, they also
created a split between Connor and the business leaders. They resented
both the damage Connor was doing to Birmingham's image around the world
and his high-handed attitude toward them.
Similarly, while Connor may have benefited politically in the short
run from Shuttlesworth's determined provocations, that also fit
Shuttleworth's long-term plans. The televised images of Connor's
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.
Shuttlesworth's activities were not limited to Birmingham. In 1964 he
traveled to St. Augustine, Florida (which he often cited as the place
where the civil rights struggle met with the most violent resistance),
taking part in marches and widely publicized beach wade-ins that led
directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Thus
he was a key figure in the Birmingham campaign that led to the
initiation of the law, and the St. Augustine campaign that finally
brought it into being.
In 1965 he was also active in Selma, Alabama, and the march from
Selma to Montgomery that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1965, thus playing an important role in the efforts that led to the
passage of the two great legislative accomplishments of the civil rights
movement. In later years he took part in commemorative activities in
Selma at the time of the anniversary of the famous march. And he
returned to St. Augustine in 2004 to take part in a celebration of the
fortieth anniversary of the civil rights movement there.
[1][11]
1966-2006: After the Voting Rights Act
Shuttlesworth organized the Greater New Light Baptist Church in 1966.
In 1978, Shuttlesworth was portrayed by
Roger Robinson in the
television miniseries King.
Shuttlesworth founded the "Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation" in 1988
to assist families who might otherwise be unable to buy their own homes.
In 1998 Shuttlesworth became an early signer and supporter of the
Birmingham Pledge, a grassroots community commitment to combating racism
and prejudice. It has since then been used for programs in all fifty
states and in more than twenty countries.
[12]
On January 8, 2001, he was presented with the
Presidential Citizens Medal by President
Bill Clinton.
Named President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in
August 2004, he resigned later in the year, complaining that "deceit,
mistrust and a lack of spiritual discipline and truth have eaten at the
core of this once-hallowed organization".
Family
Although he was born Freddie Lee Robinson, Shuttlesworth took the name of his stepfather, William N. Shuttlesworth.
Shuttlesworth was married to Ruby Keeler Shuttlesworth, with whom he
had four children: Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill, Ruby Shuttlesworth
Bester, Fred L. Shuttlesworth Jr.,and Carolyn Shuttlesworth. The
Shuttleworths divorced in 1970, and Mrs. Shuttlesworth died the
following year.
[13]
Shuttlesworth married Sephira Bailey in 2007.
[13]
After retirement
Prompted by the removal of a non-cancerous brain tumor in August of
the previous year, he gave his final sermon in front of 300 people at
the Greater New Light Baptist Church on the 19th March 2006—the weekend
of his 84th birthday. He and his second wife, Sephira, moved to downtown
Birmingham where he was receiving medical treatment.
On July 16, 2008, the
Birmingham, Alabama,
Airport Authority approved changing the name of the Birmingham's
airport in honor of Shuttlesworth. On October 27, 2008, the airport was
officially changed to
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.
On October 5, 2011, Shuttlesworth died at the age of 89 in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced that it intends to include Shuttlesworth's burial site on the Civil Rights History Trail.
[14][15] By order of
Alabama governor Robert Bentley, flags on state government buildings were to be lowered to half-staff until Shuttlesworth's interment.
[16]
He is buried in the
Oak Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
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