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[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>
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