Fred Shuttlesworth
| Fred Shuttlesworth | |
|---|---|
| 5th President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference | |
|
In office 2004–2004 |
|
| Preceded by | Martin Luther King III |
| Succeeded by | Charles Steele Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Fred Lee Robinson March 18, 1922 Mount Meigs, Alabama |
| Died | October 5, 2011 (aged 89) Birmingham, Alabama |
| Resting place |
Oak Hill Cemetery Birmingham, Alabama |
| Known for | Civil Rights Movement |
| Affiliations | Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) |
| Television |
Eyes on the Prize (1987) Freedom Riders (2010) |
Frederick Lee "Fred" Shuttlesworth ( born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011), 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.
The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was named in his honor in 2008.
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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (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.
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