 |
The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, currently pastor of the Greater
New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, 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 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. 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. He is
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).
The Reverend Shuttlesworth will be speaking of his experiences in
the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham and on the importance of
the documentary record in "keeping the dream alive."
|
