IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 432 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 12, 2011 
Ms. SEWELL (for herself, Mr. MCNERNEY, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Ms. 
MCCOLLUM, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Ms. BERKLEY, 
Mr. COOPER, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. PELOSI, Ms. JACKSON LEE 
of Texas, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. HANABUSA, Ms. 
LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. WATERS, Mr. 
KEATING, Mr. CICILLINE, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. CARNEY, Mr. DAVID SCOTT 
of Georgia, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. WATT, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. HOYER, Mr. 
CLAY, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of 
California, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. HOCHUL, Mr. WALZ of Minnesota, Mr. 
NEAL, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. WILSON of Florida, 
Mr. UPTON, Ms. SCHWARTZ, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. 
CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. MEEKS, Mrs. 
CHRISTENSEN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CLARKE of Michigan, 
Ms. RICHARDSON, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, 
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. BONNER, 
Mrs. ROBY, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. COHEN, Ms. BASS of California, Ms. 
MOORE, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. WEST, Mr. 
DEUTCH, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. LEVIN, Ms. 
EDWARDS, Mr. ADERHOLT, Ms. SUTTON, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. 
BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. MORAN, Mr. VAN 
HOLLEN, Mr. WELCH, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. MATSUI, 
Mrs. CAPPS, Mrs. SCHMIDT, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. AUSTRIA, Mr. FATTAH, 
Mr. RIVERA, Mr. BARROW, and Mr. DESJARLAIS) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
RESOLUTION 
Celebrating the life and achievements of Reverend Fred Lee 
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•HRES 432 IH 
Shuttlesworth and honoring him for his tireless efforts 
in the fight against segregation and his steadfast com-
mitment 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. Mar-
tin 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 in-
junction; 
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 Decem-
ber 26, 1956, an undeterred Reverend Shuttlesworth cou-
rageously continued the fight for equal rights, leading 
250 people in a protest of segregated buses in Bir-
mingham; 
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth was beaten with chains and 
brass knuckles by a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen in 1957 
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•HRES 432 IH 
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 At-
torney 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 de-
signed a mass campaign that included a series of non-
violent 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 Commis-
sioner of Public Safety; 
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•HRES 432 IH 
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 vio-
lence, 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 or-
ganize the historic march from Selma to Montgomery to 
protest voting discrimination in Alabama; 
Whereas Reverend Shuttlesworth became pastor of the Great-
er 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 
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Medal for his leadership in the ‘‘nonviolent civil rights 
movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading efforts to inte-
grate Birmingham, Alabama’s schools, buses, and rec-
reational 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, Presi-
dent Barack Hussein Obama said of Reverend Shuttles-
worth 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 House of Representatives cele-
brates the life and achievements of Reverend Fred Lee 
Shuttlesworth and honors him for his tireless efforts in 
the fight against segregation and his steadfast commit-
ment to the civil rights of all people. 
Æ 
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