Fred Shuttlesworth

Fred Shuttlesworth was an American civil rights activist during the 1960's.

Early life

Shuttlesworth was born on March 18, 1922, in Mount Meigs, Alabama. He became a reverend, or a Protestant Christian clergyman.

Civil rights

In the middle of the 20th century, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States, meaning that white people and black people were not allowed to use the same facilities, and the ones for black people were usually worse than the ones for white people.

Birmingham stayed segregated until Martin Luther King Jr. and people from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including Fred Shuttlesworth, protested for the rights of African Americans. Reverend Shuttlesworth also started the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights ) in May 1956.

Death

Shuttlesworth died on October 5, 2011, in a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had organized protests.

Fred Shuttlesworth Media

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  Shuttlesworth pastored Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to 1961. The church served as headquarters and a frequent meeting place for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), which Shuttlesworth founded in 1956. Shuttlesworth and his church endured three bombings, the first on December 25, 1956.

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  Statue of Shuttlesworth in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute by sculptor John Walter Rhoden.