Preview

Fred Shuttlesworth

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
773 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Fred Shuttlesworth
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
While some may find it difficult to keep calm even during a Super Bowl match, Fred Shuttlesworth maintained his composure when he and his family were beaten with chains and suffered countless death threats. Fred Shuttlesworth played a big role in making America more equal today. Fred Shuttlesworth was born on March 18, 1922 in Mount Meigs, Alabama. Shuttlesworth will always be remembered for leading nonviolent protests. Reverend Shuttlesworth is a hero who peacefully ended segregation as we know it in one of the most racist cities in the United States.
The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights is an organization formed by 1,000 African American men in Alford’s Sordis Baptist Church in 1956. Before the ACMHR was founded, Fred Shuttlesworth and a few other pastors had met up and created a group of “free and independent citizens of the U.S.A. and of the state of Alabama” (Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights). Fred Shuttlesworth’s group came together and drafted a “Declaration of Principles”. One of the principles in the Declaration stated, “we believe in State’s rights; but we believe that any first RIGHTS are Human Rights: and the first right of a state is to protect Human Rights, and to guarantee to each of its citizens the same Rights and Privileges” (Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights). ACMHR set out to end segregation in Birmingham by protesting nonviolently. After Fred’s unsuccessful protest with the National Association for the Advancement of colored people he continued his nonviolent campaign with ACMHR and petitioned the city of Birmingham to end segregation on public buses. November 13, 1956 was the date when bus segregation in Birmingham became illegal. The ACMHR immediately put the new law to practice.
After tasting his first victory with the buses, Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR wanted to take things further. Shuttlesworth called Martin Luther King JR. and gathered several other church leaders to come



Cited: “Birmingham Campaign”. Wikipedia. 13 Apr. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, inc. 15 Apr. 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/article/Birmingham_Campaign> “Southern Christian Leadership Conference”. Wikipedia. 13 Apr. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, inc. 15 Apr. 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conference> “Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights”. Wikipedia. 4 Feb. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, inc. 15 Apr. 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACMHR>

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    English

    • 2526 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Black People have long been denied their civil rights in America. It might have been hoped that the Civil War would provide a turning point because on the one hand the constitution promised the beginning of the end of slavery by Lincoln issuing the Emancipation proclamation in 1862. Years later, the final 15th amendment was placed stating “right to vote should not be denied on account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude.” However there was a loophole in this change, as it did not guarantee all men the right to vote or forbid states to introduce literacy, property, and educational tests for would be voters. An organization that issued violence and terror among Black and White people, The Ku Klux Klan played an important obstacle in the achievement of civil rights. However this was not the most effective obstacle, other factors including legal impediments, divisions of the black community, popular prejudice and lack of political party also played a main part in preventing civil rights in 1941. The most affective of these being Popular prejudice.…

    • 2526 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The goals of the African American civil rights movement changed as a catalysts provoked change, or the goals were achieved: the first goal, desegregation, lasted from 1947-1963; the goal of voting rights extended from 1963-1965, and the last goal – equal economic opportunity and improving urban conditions, officially lasted from 1965-1968. In the early 1960s, the civil rights movement focused on targeting the rampant segregation. The movement continued to win desegregation victories through the other strategies, finally culminating in Johnson’s 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation in public accommodations and was specific to prevent the loopholes that other desegregation laws had contained. However, in September 1963, the Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed, killing four black girls. The shock and disgust that the African American community felt at the bombing caused the civil rights movement to schism. The two options were to shift the movement or…

    • 317 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Brown V. Louisiana

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the 1960’s, many African-Americans believed that civil rights should become a national priority. Young civil rights activists brought their cause to the national stage and demanded the federal government assist them and help resolve the issues that plagued them. Many of them challenged segregation in the South by protesting at stores and schools that practiced segregation. Despite the efforts of these groups and Supreme Court rulings that ordered the desegregation of buses and bus stations, violence and prejudice against African-Americans in the South continued (Meyer, F.S., 1968).…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Battle of Ole Miss

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The civil rights movement, which increased in size during WWII (NAACP membership grew from 50,000 to 500,000) gained momentum in 1954 with the Supreme Court Case of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional2. By 1956 Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, Oklahoma and Missouri had moved to desegregate their schools, but for Southern white Americans for whom white supremacy (which segregation upheld) was deeply embedded in cultural values and social conventions, integration was a non-option3. Many Southern whites regarded it as the Second Reconstruction. In Mississippi officials responded with a plan to “equalize” schools, the legislature created the State Soverignty Commission,…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Dr. King was 25, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and accept an offer to become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. During King’s tenure at Dexter, the leading political activists in Montgomery formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to protest the arrest of Rosa Parks, an influential political figure and important NAACP official. Rosa Parks is now remembered today for sitting at the front of a public bus, sectioned for “whites-only”, and refusing to move. This famous and well known example of political activism inspired King and the MIA to lead a boycott on public bus transportation in Montgomery, the first major example of King participating in political activism. With the important encouragement…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is addressed to eight white clergymen who had composed a letter criticizing the protests for equal rights in Birmingham, Alabama. King, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Civil Rights activist, tries to battle the injustice and inhumane treatment towards the African-American society, which the clergymen tend to disregard. King’s efforts were devoted to bringing awareness to the nation about the prevalence of segregation in Birmingham and South and protecting the rights of all citizens of the United States by leading the Civil Rights movement. King utilizes figurative language, appeals to pathos and appeals to logos to argue that his nonviolent protest movement is not extreme.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the Civil Rights Movements, the NAACP firmly maintained their non-violent approach (accompanied by Martin Luther King) and majorly inspired countless Civil Rights protests, court cases and law changes (it is believed that the NAACPs contributions and achievements were overshadowed by Martin Luther King’s campaigning). Since its establishment in 1909, the NAACP has contributed largely to the success of many history changing civil rights movements throughout the US. Some of the most influential of these include: 1913- opposed president Woodrow Wilsons introduction of ‘Jim Crows’ laws of segregation into the federal government; 1935- legal fight was won by Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston, allowing an African American student to attend the University of Maryland; 1940- founding of NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund, Inc.; 1948 Morgan vs. Virginia court case- Court bans states from having laws that sanction segregation facilities in interstate travel by train or bus; 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education court case- successfully de-segregated public schools (led by Thurgood Marshall); 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott- non-violent protest which resulted in the de-segregation of public transport- Martin Luther King also emerged during this protest along with his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; 1960 Greensboro- youth of NAACP launched ‘sit-ins’ (sitting at and taking up all of the seats at counters of various diners) which led to 60 stores de-segregating their counters- also led to the development of the Student Non-violent Co-ordination Committee (SNCC); 1963- NAACP pushed for Equal Opportunity Employment act; 1964- 55years after the formation of NAACP, Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress; 1965- Voting Rights Act was passed. Due to the NAACPs…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Children's March

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many thousands of people were working in the 1950s and 1960s to end segregation. But one spring, Martin Luther King was in one of the largest and strictest segregated cities in the south--Birmingham, Alabama. There he could find only a few people who would help. At night they would have big meetings at a church; they would talk about segregation and ways to change things. Four hundred people would show up for the meeting, but only thirty-five or so would volunteer to protest; and not all of these volunteers would show up the next day for the protest march. Those who did would gather downtown, parade through the streets, carry signs, chant, and sing, sending the message that…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book, Colaiaco presents the successes that Dr. King achieves throughout his work for Civil Rights. The beginning of Dr. King’s nonviolent civil rights movements started in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks refused to move for a white person, violating city’s transportation rules. After Parks was convicted Dr. King, who was 26 at the time, was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). “For 381 days, thousands of blacks walked to work, some as many as 12 miles a day, rather than continue to submit to segregated public transportation” (18). This boycott ended up costing the bus company more than $250,000 in revenue. The bus boycott in Montgomery made King a symbol of racial justice overnight. This boycott helped organize others in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tallahassee. During the 1940s and 1950s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a series of cases that helped put it ahead in the civil rights movement. One of these advancements was achieved in 1944, when the United States Supreme Court banned all-white primaries. Other achievements made were the banning of…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The pressure of racial segregation was reaching a boiling point in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. After being arrested for his part in the Birmingham Campaign, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an open letter in response to “A Call for Unity”, written by eight white clergymen from Birmingham. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a true call for unity, as he clearly states and points out facts that the clergymen have omitted from their letter. King is clearly not looking to stoke the fire of segregation; he was merely looking to solve the situation at hand and trying to peacefully end racial segregation in the United States. “A Call for Unity”, written in early April 1963 (Jonathan, 12-18).…

    • 2996 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King, Jr. was truly disappointed in the white church leaders. They spoke out against the movement in Birmingham, calling it “unwise and untimely” (213). In King’s opinion, and the opinion of hundreds of others, there was no better time. More importantly, Dr. King argues that the awful treatment of African Americans by laws and people should have been considered even more unwise and untimely. Years before, these religious leaders failed to be an ally to those involved in the bus protest in Montgomery (225). The “white religious leadership” also neglected to be a “channel through which [the protestors’] grievances could reach the power structure, despite the ‘deep moral concern’ they should have” (226). The protestors needed the church as a force, as a support, to fall…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Civil Rights Revolution

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cooksey, Elizabeth B. (December 23, 2004). "Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)". The new Georgia encyclopedia. Athens, GA: Georgia Humanities Council. OCLC 54400935. Retrieved February 12, 2008.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Moral Majority

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Wilcox, Clyde. God 's Warriors: the Christian Right in Twentieth-century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992. Print.…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Black Civil Rights was a movement that began right when “Reconstruction” ended in the late 1870’s which granted all Americans to equal treatment under the law, as provided by the Fourteenth Amendment (Sidlow & Henschen, 99) I will be discussing certain examples that marked this movement significantly. For example, in the landmark of Plessey vs. Ferguson decision in 1896, the Supreme Court upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites (Sidlow & Henschen, 101). The court then sentenced blacks to more than half a century of social inequality. Along with this certain act, came many more prominent movements that shaped the world today. The Selma to Montgomery March, for example, was a movement that both MLK Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership (SCLC) helped organized after the renowned Rosa Parks refused to move to the “colored section”. After being arrested and fined, many African Americans were spurred and began to organize a nine-year boycott (Sidlow & Henschen, 103). Through years of struggle the government proved unable to secure civil rights for Black people, and so activists started to take matters into their own hands in the early 1960s.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The African American movement transpired in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Although, there were many consequences for such rebellion, African Americans still rioted for their freedom. They were harmed and suffered great pain for the march and were even jailed for their acts. Martin Luther King was a strong African American leader who fought for the elevation of segregation. He was jailed and wrote, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” to the clergymen to address the issues that had came from the African American struggles for freedom.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays