The MLK Council of Elders
Rev. Frederick L. Shuttlesworth
Return to Council of Elders page
Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth was born on March 8, 1922, in Mugler, Alabama. After graduating from Selma University in 1951 and Alabama State College in 1952, he became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham.
While in Birmingham, he organized sit-ins and bus boycotts and helped encourage African Americans to apply for civil service jobs. His service and activism earned him much spite and hate from the white community. Shuttlesworth’s house was targeted several times for bombed attacks, and he received countless threats. He was beaten brutally by a white mob with whips and chains as he attempted to help integrate an all-white public school.
In 1957 Shuttlesworth joined Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Bayard Rustin to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the main objective of the SCLC was to coordinate and assist local organizations working for the full equality of African Americans.
In 1960 Shuttlesworth participated in the sit-in protests against segregated lunch counters and in 1961 helped Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) organize its Freedom Rides. He also led the mass demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham and this resulted in him being hospitalized in May, 1963, after being slammed against a wall by water from fire hoses.
Shuttlesworth was one of the key figures in planning the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. He helped the Congress of Racial Equality organize its Freedom Rides.
In 1966, Shuttlesworth went on to become pastor of Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was through his work there that he became the director of the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation in 1988. In this position, he aided more than 460 low-income families in gaining home ownership. Shuttlesworth served as the pastor of Greater New Light until 2006.
Today he continues to speak nationally on civil rights issues. He was a featured speaker at Howard University's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in December