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March 18
He was born and raised in Birmingham, graduating from Selma University (1951) and Alabama State College (1952). Between 1953 and 1961, he served as pastor of Birmingham’s Bethel Baptist Church and organized the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956. He was also one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helped the Congress on Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) organize its "freedom rides" campaign. During the civil rights struggles in Birmingham, Rev. Shuttlesworth’s house was a frequent target of bombing attacks and he was hospitalized after a fire hose slammed him up against a building during a civil rights demonstration. His civil rights activities made him a target of white racists and, on Christmas Day 1956, Shuttlesworth survived a bomb blast that destroyed his house. The following year a white mob beat Shuttlesworth with whips and chains during an attempt to integrate an all-white public school. During this period Martin Luther King described him as "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.” Since 1988, in addition to his duties with the Greater New Light Baptist Church, Rev. Shuttlesworth has served as director of the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation, which has assisted over 460 low-income families to purchase their own homes. Shuttlesworth is the father of four, daughters Patricia, Ruby, and Carolyn, and a son, Fred, Jr. He is pastor of the Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio and speaks nationally on civil rights issues. He is one of the giants of the American Civil Rights Movement, generally regarded, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy as one of the movement’s "big three." He was also the subject of a 1999 biography by Andrew M. Manis, A Fire you Can’t Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham’s Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (University of Alabama Press). Reference: Cincinnati Historical Society Library 1301 Western Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45203 Phone: 513-287-7030 Fax: 513-287-7095
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The African American Registry®, The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
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