[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 149 (Thursday, October 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6349-S6350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SENATE RESOLUTION 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

  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 of Nevada) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 289

       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

[[Page S6350]]

     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.

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