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| Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth speaks with FOX6 WBRC-TV during an interview in 2003. (WBRC video) | |
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| Shuttlesworth is in the center, Martin Luther King, Jr. on the left, Abernathy on the right. They were at the AG Gaston Hotel announcing the Birmingham Truce. (WBRC video) | |
Sources tell FOX6 News Shuttlesworth died at 10:28 a.m.
Shuttlesworth, born in Mount Meigs, AL, in 1922, was very active as a preacher of the gospel and civil rights in Birmingham during the 1950's. He served as pastor of Birmingham's Bethel Baptist Church. He was beaten and arrested numerous times for his activism and was the target of several acts of violence, including the bombing of his house on Christmas Day in 1956 and a beating in front of the old Phillips High School in 1957.
[To see WBRC civil rights videos and exclusive interviews with Fred Shuttlesworth, visit the WBRC Civil Rights Vault: www.myfoxal.com/vault]
Shuttlesworth formed the Alabama Christian Rights Movement and helped create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which he was secretary for many years.
Shuttlesworth left Alabama in 1961 and moved to Cincinatti to become pastor of Revelation Baptist Church and, later, Greater Light Baptist Church, where he continued to work against racism. However, he frequently returned to Alabama to continue efforts to end racism. Shuttlesworth organized numerous lunch counter sit-ins and bus boycotts during the 1960's. He also helped organize the Freedom Rides and Project C.
In 2000, Shuttlesworth was awarded the President's Citizens Medal by President Clinton. He returned to Birmingham after his retirement in 2007.
In October 2008, the Birmingham Airport Authority changed the name of the Birmingham International Airport to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.
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