Fred Shuttlesworth was a minister in the civil rights movement. One of the leaders in fact. He worked alongside Martin Luther King jr. also the SCLC. He was born in Mount Meigs, Alabama on March 18, 1922. He and Martin founded the SCLC and in Birmingham helped organize protests. Even after multiple attacks, they refused to quit. Fred was a Robinson before he became a Shuttlesworth. He got the name Shuttlesworth from his step dad named William Shuttlesworth. William married Fred’s mother, Alberta. His biological father was never mentioned. He was the first child out of nine children.
In high school, he graduated valedictorian. He worked at many places before finally settling at a church. In 1951, he first studied at the ministerial institution Selma University. There he earned his B.A. Then went to Alabama…show more content… Shuttlesworth, King, and another minister named Ralph D. Abernathy later became a part of the movement “Big Three”. Fred was a very devoted fighter of civil rights. He even received many awards
Martin Luther King jr once named him “the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South”. Even though he was beaten severely, his wife stabbed, and his house bombed, he still did not surrender. He devoted his whole life to fighting for equality. For that, he was highly respected in the African American community.
Fred Shuttlesworth was slammed against the wall by the force of the water pressure from the fire hydrant when he was leading a protest against segregation in Birmingham. Shuttlesworth and his family were beaten by a gang of KKK members, while they were trying to enroll their kids in an all-white school. In the process of the beating, his wife was stabbed. He drove her to the hospital. While there he told his kids to always forgive. In 1958, during church, a church member standing guard outside the church spotted a bomb and moved it before it went