Reverend Freddie Lee Shuttlesworth
AFR 497
October 10, 2013
Abstract: This article attempts to cover as much of the life of Rev. Freddie Lee Shuttlesworth. Shuttlesworth was a key figure in the struggle for civil and human rights during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He is typically over shadowed by those of more assumed prominence but his contribution to the movement through the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights as well as his individual charisma and conviction to standing against injustice are unmatched. Comparable more to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King, Shuttlesworth was a man of sincerity and compassion but was also a man of action over words. He faced several attempts on his life and believed that God protected him which added even more validity to his mission. Although Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth is an unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement, hopefully those who are aware of his heroic feats, including myself, can bring more awareness to a great man.
Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth was one of the most unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Little was known about him and some of the most valuable information about the Reverend came not from those close to him, but from secret agents who recorded and transcribed meetings. He was a pivotal character in many of the fights for racial equality in Birmingham, Alabama. Reverend Freddie Lee Shuttlesworth was born Freddie Lee Robinson on March 18, 1922 in Mt. Meigs, Montgomery County, Alabama. He was the first child of Alberta Robinson and Vetter Greene, whom never married. When Robinson was three years old his family moved to Oxmoor, Jefferson County, Alabama. Nearly two years later Robinson’s married William Nathan Shuttlesworth and the Robinson children were given their stepfather’s last name. Shuttlesworth was pretty uneventful up until his graduation from high school in 1940 and then arrest for distilling three months later. Shuttlesworth was sentenced to...