Whereas the Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth was born on
March 18, 1922, in Mount Meigs, Alabama;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth, a former truck driver who
studied theology at night, was ordained in 1948;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth became pastor of Bethel
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1953, and was an outspoken leader in
the fight for racial equality;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth worked alongside Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and was hailed by Dr. King for his courage and energy in the
fight for civil rights;
Whereas, in May 1956, Reverend Shuttlesworth established
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights when the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People was banned from Alabama by court
injunction;
Whereas, in a brazen attempt to threaten Reverend
Shuttleworth’s resolve and commitment to the fight for equality and justice, 6
sticks of dynamite were detonated outside Reverend Shuttlesworth's bedroom
window on Christmas Day, 1956;
Whereas, on the day after the attack on his home, on
December 26, 1956, an undeterred Reverend Shuttlesworth courageously continued
the fight for equal rights, leading 250 people in a protest of segregated buses
in Birmingham;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth was beaten with chains and
brass knuckles by a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen in 1957 when he tried to enroll his
children in a segregated school in Birmingham;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth co-founded the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as the first secretary of the
organization from 1958 to 1970 and as its president in 2004;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth participated in protesting
segregated lunch counters and helped lead sit-ins in 1960;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth worked with the Congress of
Racial Equality to organize the Freedom Rides against segregated interstate
buses in the South in 1961;
Whereas it was Reverend Shuttlesworth who called upon
Attorney General Robert Kennedy to protect the Freedom Riders;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth freed a group of Freedom
Riders from jail and drove them to the Tennessee State line to safety;
Whereas, in 1963, Reverend Shuttlesworth persuaded Dr.
King to bring the civil rights movement to Birmingham;
Whereas, in the spring of 1963, Reverend Shuttlesworth
designed a mass campaign that included a series of nonviolent sit-ins and
marches against illegal segregation by Black children, students, clergymen, and
others;
Whereas, in 1963, while leading a nonviolent protest
against segregation in Birmingham, Reverend Shuttlesworth was slammed against a
wall and knocked unconscious by the force of the water pressure from fire hoses
turned on demonstrators at the order of Bull Connor, the Commissioner of Public
Safety;
Whereas the televised images of Connor directing the use
of firefighters’ hoses and police dogs to attack nonviolent demonstrators, and
to arrest those undeterred by violence, had a profound effect on the view of
the civil rights struggle by citizens of the United States;
Whereas, as a result of those violent images, President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy called the fight for equality a moral issue;
Whereas those violent images helped lead to the passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88–352; 78 Stat. 241);
Whereas, in his 1963 book Why We Can't
Wait
, Dr. King called Reverend Shuttlesworth one of the nation's
most courageous freedom fighters . . . a wiry, energetic, and indomitable
man
;
Whereas, in March 1965, Reverend Shuttlesworth helped
organize the historic march from Selma to Montgomery to protest voting
discrimination in Alabama;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth became pastor of the
Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1966 and served as
pastor until his retirement in 2006;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth advocated for racial
justice in Cincinnati and for increased minority representation in the public
institutions of Cincinnati, including the police department and city
council;
Whereas, in the 1980s, Reverend Shuttlesworth established
the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation in Cincinnati, which helped low-income
families in Cincinnati become homeowners;
Whereas, in 2001, President William Jefferson Clinton
awarded Reverend Shuttlesworth a Presidential Citizens Medal for his leadership
in the nonviolent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading
efforts to integrate Birmingham, Alabama's schools, buses, and recreational
facilities
;
Whereas the Birmingham international airport was named for
Reverend Shuttlesworth in 2008, and is now known as the
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport;
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth was inducted into the Ohio
Civil Rights Commission Hall of Fame in 2009;
Whereas in Reverend Shuttlesworth's final sermon he said
the best thing we can do is be a servant of God . . . it does good to
stand up and serve others
; and
Whereas upon the death of Reverend Shuttlesworth,
President Barack Hussein Obama said of Reverend Shuttlesworth that he
dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans.
He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on
his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted
their voices to help perfect our union
: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of Representatives
celebrates the life and achievements of Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth and
honors him for his tireless efforts in the fight against segregation and his
steadfast commitment to the civil rights of all people.