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Civil Rights Leader Fred
Shuttlesworth dies at 89
Civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth has
died at the age of 89, according to family members.
Shuttlesworth helped lead the fight against segregation
in Birmingham before his 1961 move to Cincinnati, where
he served as Pastor at the Greater New Light Baptist
Church in Avondale for more than 40 years, working
tirelessly for non-violent change. In 2009, Birmingham
renamed its airport the Birmingham/Shuttlesworth
International Airport after the activist. Shuttlesworth
endured beatings and bombings, but never gave up in high
fight for people to be treated equally. . . ..
"Beatings—jailing—violence—dogs—the whole bit. Fred was
always on the front line." Marjorie Parham, formerly of
the Cincinnati Herald, said. Shuttlesworth said Ku Klux
Klan members tried to kill him at least 10 times. "He
was almost invincible, you know. They couldn't shake
him. They couldn't get rid of him. He just kept coming
back and back and back," Don Spencer, of Avondale, said.
One of those attempts—with 16 sticks of
dynamite—permanently changed his outlook on life.
"Christmas, 1956, when the bomb went off in the store at
the house, I don't have a picture of that,” Rev Fred
Shuttlesworth said of the incident in a 2002 interview.
“If you had that you can see why I don't get excited. It
blew the corner off the house -- the springs out from
under my bed -- the wall between my head and the
dynamite was shattered. It took the fear out of me and
it made me know that god saved me to lead the fight so
that I was never fearful after that."
As Fred
Shuttlesworth carried the load in Birmingham, his work
inspired a young pastor rising to prominence in
Montgomery, Alabama. His name was Martin Luther King,
Jr. "Martin worked on a higher sphere in terms of
eloquence and loftiness of speech and beauty of mind and
was able to do and do things, where Fred was down at the
grass roots,” Rev. Lynch said. “He was right down there
in the trenches. He was just as important as Martin was
and I rate Fred as equal—as a hero in the civil rights
movement—as Martin Luther King, Jr." Shuttlesworth kept
fighting for justice—going against Cincinnati Gas &
Electric. "When they shut off the gas and electric they
are, in fact, inviting death, suffering and hardship to
people," Rev. Shuttlesworth said.
In 1967, he was
philosophical about returning to Birmingham to serve a
five-day jail sentence for contempt."First of all, it's
a matter of honor and integrity,” Rev. Shuttlesworth
said. “I think a person has a right to bear the
consequences of his actions and then the next thing is
that this suffering must be done to purify the country."
That same thinking applied to a 1981 demonstration at
the White House against social program cuts. "I do
expect to get arrested,” Rev. Shuttlesworth said in a
1981 interview. “I do think it's a valuable thing that
people must say to their government at the highest level
of government with a non-violent participation and
persuasion -- we are not going to be silent." . . .
"Many of the
freedoms and concerns we're enjoying in terms of
economic development, jobs, education, spirituality, is
because of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth," Dr. Charles
Steele of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
said. "There are people who are enjoying his legacy that
have no idea,” Beaupre said. “People who have jobs that
they wouldn't have had—that can vote that couldn't vote
before—that can drink from fountains that they couldn't
drink from before." "I think that our young people
should think of the sacrifices he made to get ahead and
get the rights that we have now," Donald Spencer said.
What is the legacy
of the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth? "I would say courage
in the face of danger—in the face of all
odds—perseverance—stick-to-it-iveness—and tenacity,"
Rev. Lynch said. Shuttlesworth himself reflected in 2002
on his contributions to mankind. "I hope my life has
been inspirational to young people and to really all
people because if we realize we're on this earth for
God's purpose -- this brotherhood -- that's the main
thing,” Rev. Shuttlesworth said. “Not to just be seen
because I don't think people ought to be a show. We
ought to live our lives -- we ought to live them in
relationship to others and try to do as
Source:
KyPost
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Fred
Shuttlesworth, Birmingham civil rights legend, dies at
89 Wednesday, October 05, 2011—By Greg Garrison—Birmingham,
Alabama—The
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the driving force behind
the Birmingham integration efforts in the 1950s and
early 1960s that energized the national civil rights
movement, died this morning. He was 89. The Rev.
Shuttlesworth, who was brutally beaten by a mob, sprayed
with city fire hoses, arrested by police 35 times and
also blown out of his bed by a Ku Klux Klan bomb during
his struggle against segregation in Birmingham, said he
never feared death.
"I tried to get
killed in Birmingham and go home to God because I knew
it would be better for you in Birmingham," he once told
an audience of students at Lawson State Community
College. He founded the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights in 1956, when he began violating
Birmingham's bus segregation law. He risked his life
again and again—his house and his church were bombed; he
was beaten by a mob—to pave the way for the civil
rights."That Fred Shuttlesworth did not become a martyr
was not for lack of trying," said his biographer, Andrew
Manis, author of
A Fire You Can't Put Out. "There was not a
person in the civil rights movement who put himself in
the position of being killed more often than Fred
Shuttlesworth." The Rev. Shuttlesworth is survived by
his wife, Sephira Shuttlesworth,
and his children, Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill,
Ruby Shuttlesworth Bester, Fred L. Shuttlesworth Jr.,
and Carolyn Shuttlesworth. . . .
The relationship
between King and the Rev. Shuttlesworth was delicate as
well. Manis recounts one time in which King and the Rev.
Ralph Abernathy were discussing views of Christ's
Resurrection and the Rev. Shuttlesworth took their
comments as doubt about the historical truth of the
Resurrection. The Rev. Shuttlesworth reacted so
intensely to King's suggestion that the disciples may
have seen an apparition that King never seemed
comfortable discussing theology with him again, Manis
said.Yet King knew how vital Shuttlesworth was to the
movement. "They were not close friends; they were in a
sense business associates," Manis said. "He appreciated
what Shuttlesworth was doing." But their differing
backgrounds and approaches meant they would never be
close friends, as King and Abernathy were. "That kept
King at arm's length from Shuttlesworth," Manis said.
"The movement took all kinds of people. They both
understood their roles."
The Rev.
Shuttlesworth had begun pestering King as early as 1959
to focus national demonstrations on Birmingham, writing
letters impatient and irritated in tone. "Shuttlesworth
helped the rest of the movement understand the way
Birmingham was symbolically the strongest bastion of
segregation in the South, with Bull Connor himself being
the symbol of segregation," Manis said. "That was clear
to Shuttlesworth early on." It may have been clear to
King too, but it wasn't until the disappointment of
King's efforts in Albany, Ga., that he felt the timing
was right for Birmingham in 1963. The success in
Birmingham propelled King to even greater prominence.
When King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he invited
a large entourage with him to accept the prize in Oslo,
Norway. The Rev. Shuttlesworth wasn't one of them, and
he was deeply hurt. "You can make the argument King
would not have won the prize without the success in
Birmingham, and that would not have been possible
without the groundwork laid by Shuttlesworth," Manis
said. "He was upset that he was not included in the
entourage to Oslo. I don't exactly blame him."
The Rev.
Shuttlesworth called King about the matter and King
apologized, saying he hadn't thought it through. But the
Rev. Shuttlesworth was also not invited to a subsequent
celebration of the prize in Atlanta. Manis writes that
the Rev. Shuttlesworth held a residual anger toward
King, and disagreed with King's not keeping the pressure
on in Birmingham. The Rev. Shuttlesworth continued to
participate in national protests. The Rev. Shuttlesworth
went through infighting with the congregation at
Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati, which caused a
church split. He then helped found Greater New Light
Baptist Church in 1966 with the help of supporters from
the split. He had remained pastor of Greater New Light
until his retirement in 2005.
Even after he moved
to Ohio, the Rev. Shuttlesworth still seemed to spend
much of his time in Birmingham. "I used to say I
preached in Cincinnati and pastored in Birmingham," he
said. Shuttlesworth returned to Birmingham in 2008,
living for awhile in a downtown apartment after
undergoing therapy for a stroke he suffered in 2007.
The Birmingham International Airport was named after him
and he attended the premiere of a documentary
highlighting his work at the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute, where a statue of him stands outside. He
often reflected on the many confrontations in his life.
"Confrontation is not bad," he said. "Goodness is
supposed to confront evil."—Blog.Al
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Photos Remembering Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth: 1922-2011
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Reverend Fred
Shuttlesworth, born
Freddie 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, 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. The
Birmingham Airport is named after him.
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 [ACMHR]
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.
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."
When Shuttlesworth
and his wife 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, including a man
involved in the
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, also known as
the Birmingham Church Bombing, named
Bobby Cherry, beat him with chains and brass
knuckles in the street while someone stabbed his wife.
Shuttlesworth lost consciousness but was dragged to
safety and driven away. 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.—Wikipedia
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Rev
Shuttlesworth Story /
Fred Shuttlesworth: My Relationship with Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Fred Shuttlesworth Overview /
Fred Shuttlesworth: Stopping at Nothing for Equal Rights
Fred Shuttlesworth: My Devilish Boyhood /
Fred Shuttlesworth: Advice to Young African Americans
Fred Shuttlesworth: Fighting Segregation from the Pulpit
/
Fred Shuttlesworth: America's Future
Fred Shuttlesworth: My Greatest Achievement /
Fred Shuttlesworth: My Greatest Regret
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The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
By
Andrew M. Manis
In this
intriguing work, the first full-scale
biography of Birmingham's Rev. Fred
Shuttlesworth ("perhaps the most unsung of
the many heroes of the American civil rights
movement"), religious historian Manis
compellingly depicts a dual, combustible
life. While providing insights into
Shuttleworth's pastoral work and family
life, he also offers a lengthy analysis of
his subject's civil rights activities. He
contends that Martin Luther King Jr. and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
went to Birmingham on Shuttlesworth's direct
invitation and that they owed their success
there largely to Shuttlesworth's having
organized a large and loyal cadre of
demonstrators over seven years. It was
Shuttlesworth's tenacity and courage, Manis
suggests, that toppled Birmingham's virulent
racism. Based largely on interviews with
Shuttlesworth, this well-written and
-researched book offers valuable new
information and insights into a crucial era
of Southern and African American history.—Library
Journal |
 |
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 7 October 2011
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