[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 289 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 289
Celebrating the life and achievements of Reverend Fred Lee
Shuttlesworth and honoring him for his tireless efforts in the fight
against segregation and his steadfast commitment to the civil rights of
all people.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 6, 2011
Mr. Brown of Ohio (for himself, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Portman,
Mr. Levin, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Inhofe, Ms.
Mikulski, and Mr. Reid) submitted the following resolution; which was
considered and agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Celebrating the life and achievements of Reverend Fred Lee
Shuttlesworth and honoring him for his tireless efforts in the fight
against segregation and his steadfast commitment to the civil rights of
all people.
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
Resolved, That the Senate 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.
<all>