About:

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was a relentless person of the Civil Rights Movement, challenging segregation in the school system and the Jim Crow policies in public accommodations. Many things happened good and bad to him. One Christmas night, Shuttlesworth home had blown up due to the Ku Klux Klan dynamite of sixteen sticks. During this, he had landed in his basement, his bedroom blew apart, and one of his visitors, Deacon Charles Robinson was unharmed. After that day, he created and led a rally. Shuttlesworth had four children, Patricia, Ruby, Fred Jr., and Carolyn. In 1957, he decided to enroll his daughter in an all white school. Unfortunately, he was beaten by the police for doing this. Even though he was injured, he worked to secure Birmingham’s public accommodations and the desegregation of schooling.

He was a long-standing leader to end segregation in Birmingham and was a fearless advocate of racial justice. He was the one of the only persons to confront directly segregation in the civil right movement. Shuttlesworth continually challenged Jim Crow in Birmingham. In addition, in 1963, he participated in a civil rights campaign in Kelley Ingram Park. Shuttlesworth was hospitalized because he was attacked by Sheriff Bull Connor’s water cannons when he led a very non-violent demonstration.

Education:

• Attended Oxmore Elementary School where he was mentored by Israel Ramsey
• Began as a student at Winona High School, but ended up graduating from Rosedale High School in 1840
• Reverend E.A. Palmer wanted Shuttlesworth to attend Cedar Grove Academy in Prichard, Alabama, so he need up going there in 1953-1961
• Attended Selma University and Alabama State College to pursue a BA degree when he had delivered a sermon in 1945. Also, he attended Birmingham Baptist College in 1969 to attend a divinity degree

Career:

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a pastor doing a sermon

• Shuttlesworth attended a Baptist church in 1943, even though he was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) Church. When the preacher from the church invited Shuttlesworth to give sermons, he decided to go to attend Cedar Grove Academy, which helped him prepare to become a reverend.
• He started first at small churches in Alabama, such as becoming the pastor at the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham from 1953-1961.
• In addition, he was the pastor in 1961-1966 at the Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati.
• He became the pastor in 1966 of the Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio and was the founding director of the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation.

Selected Membership:

• In May of 1956 during a mass meeting at Bethel, Shuttlesworth established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR). Basically ACMHR was a civil rights group that arranged boycotts and funded federal lawsuits directing at dismantling segregation
• He also became a participant of the Montgomery Improvement Association’s Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Shuttlesworth was also one of the original officers and president in 2004 in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  

Awards received:

Through his lifetime, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth received many awards:

• National Newspaper Publishers’ Association; Russwurm Award in 1958
  
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Rosa Parks Award in 1963
  
• Founder’s Award in 1977
  
• PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) ;Excellence Award in 1974
  

Works Cited

Curnutte, Mark. "Shuttlesworth biography a civil rights story." Enquirer.Com. The Cincinnati Enquirer, 18 Aug. 1999. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. .

"Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth Biography." The HistoryMakers. The HistoryMakers, 03 25 2006. Web. 26 Sep 2010. .

Rop, Jimmy. "Shuttlesworth, Fred (1922-- )." BlackPast.org. BlackPast.org, 2008. Web. 26 Sep 2010. .