Frederick Lee "Fred" Shuttlesworth, born Fred 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, initiated and 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. 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 at any time.
The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was named in his
honor in 2008. 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 raised to run."
Southern Christian Leadership Conference In 1957 Shuttlesworth, along with Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 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
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 Civil Rights 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 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 campaign 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".
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 six years later
was involved in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. The mob beat
Shuttlesworth 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. 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. 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 and became engaged with ensuring the
success of the rides, especially during their stint in Alabama. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. Shuttlesworth stuck
with the Riders and called Kennedy. 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
and were assisted by Shuttlesworth in getting to the airport and onto the
plane. Shuttlesworth’s commitment to the
Freedom Rides was highlighted by Diane Nash, a student activist in the
Nashville Student Movement and a major organizer of the later waves of Rides.
Nash 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." The students involved in
the Rides appreciated Shuttlesworth's commitment to the principles 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. 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, determining
that 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.
This occurred when James Bevel, SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director
of Nonviolent Education, initiated and organized the young students of the city
to stand up for their rights. This plan was helped immeasurably by Eugene "Bull"
Connor, the Commissioner of Public Safety and the 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 and Bevel's
determined provocations, they also fit into Shuttleworth's long-term plans. The
televised images of Connor's directing handlers of police dogs to attack young
unarmed demonstrators and firefighters' using hoses to knock down children had a
profound effect on American citizens' view of the civil rights struggle, and
helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Shuttlesworth's activities were not limited to Birmingham. In 1964 he
traveled to St. Augustine, Florida, taking part in marches and widely
publicized beach wade-ins. In 1965 he was active in the Selma
Voting Rights Movement, and its march from Selma to Montgomery which led to
the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Shuttlesworth thus played a 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 St. Augustine movement there.
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.
Obama 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. 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". In 2004, Shuttlesworth received the
Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award
given out annually by Jefferson Awards. During the 2004 election that overturned
a city charter provision that prohibited Cincinnati's City Council from adopting
any gay-rights ordinance, Shuttlesworth voiced advertisements urging voters to
reject the repeal, saying "The thing that I disagree with is when gay people
... equate civil rights, what we did in the '50s and '60s, with special rights
... I think what they propose is special rights. Sexual rights is not the same as
civil rights and human rights." 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.
Shuttlesworth married Sephira Bailey in 2007.
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
March 19, 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. By order of Alabama governor
Robert Bentley, flags on state government buildings were to be lowered
to half-staff until Shuttlesworth's interment.
He is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
See also African-American Civil Rights Movement
American Civil Rights Movement List of civil rights leaders
Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement
References Bibliography
Andrew Manis. A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN
0-8173-0968-3 Branch, Taylor Parting The Waters;
America In The King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN
0-671-46097-8 Manis, Andrew M. "Birmingham's Reverend
Fred Shuttlesworth: unsung hero of the civil rights movement".. Baptist History
and Heritage. – accessed January 17, 2007
*McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic
Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1772-1
Nunnelley, William. Bull Connor. University of Alabama Press. ISBN
0-585-32316-X White, Marjorie Longenecker A Walk to
Freedom: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society. ISBN 0-943994-24-1
White, Marjorie, Manis, Andrew, eds. Birmingham Revolutionaries: The Reverend
Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.
Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-86554-709-2
Curnutte, Mark "In the Name of Civil Rights: The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
carries on a 40-year fight as the movement's 'battlefield general'."
Cincinnati Enquirer – accessed January 20, 2007.
"The Champion" Time Magazine. Walton, Val "Rev. Shuttlesworth to
return to Birmingham for post-stroke therapy." Birmingham News
Garrison, Greg "Legacy, history of civil rights icon Fred Shuttlesworth."
Birmingham News The White House – Office of the Press
Secretary External links
Fred Shuttlesworth from the Encyclopedia of Alabama
Fred Shuttleswoth's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary
Leadership Project Fred Shuttleswoth in The Road to
Equality roundtable discussion on CETconnect
Fred Shuttlesworth at Find a Grave