III 

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; 


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•SRES 289 ATS 

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; 


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•SRES 289 ATS 

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; 


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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; 


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•SRES 289 ATS 

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 

1 Resolved, That the Senate celebrates the life and 

2 achievements of Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth and 

3 honors him for his tireless efforts in the fight against seg4 regation and his steadfast commitment to the civil rights 

5 of all people. 

Æ 


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