Shuttlesworth, Fred (1922–2011)

Born in Alabama, Shuttlesworth became pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in 1953. He led the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, which was the most important civil rights organization in Birmingham in the 1950s and 19560s, formed to continue the court-halted work of the NAACP in Alabama. A founding minister of the SCLC in 1957 with Dr. King, he organized two weeks of demonstrations in Birmingham in 1963 against segregation, which in part led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Through personal injury, arrest, and tumult, he fought for the civil rights movement and became one of its most dedicated leaders.