Freddie Lee Shuttlesworth was an American civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, initiated and was instrumental in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign, and continued to work against racism and for alleviation of the problems of the homeless in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he took up a pastorate in 1961. He returned to Birmingham after his retirement in 2007. He worked with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, though the two men often disagreed on tactics and approaches.
Shuttlesworth in 2002
Shuttlesworth pastored Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to 1961. The church served as headquarters and a frequent meeting place for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), which Shuttlesworth founded in 1956. Shuttlesworth and his church endured three bombings, the first on December 25, 1956.
Statue of Shuttlesworth in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute by sculptor John Walter Rhoden.
Birmingham is a city in the north central region of Alabama. Birmingham is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2022 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 196,910, down 2% from the 2020 census, making it Alabama's third-most populous city after Huntsville and Montgomery. The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 50th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation.
Image: Birmingham cityscape view 2010
Image: 16th Street Baptist Church
Image: Birmingham City Hall (Alabama)
Image: Alabama Theatre