Civil Rights Leader Shuttlesworth Speaks on Feb 13
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth is considered to be one of the “big three” leaders of the Civil Rights Movement
BUFFALO, NY – Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, will speak at Canisius College on Wednesday, February 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Montante Cultural Center. The event is free and open to the public.Shuttlesworth is considered to be one of the “big three” leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, joining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. When the state of Alabama banned the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1956, Shuttlesworth co-founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The following year, he helped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the main civil rights group working in the deep south. Shuttlesworth also advised Rev. King during the Montgomery bus boycott, rescued the Freedom Riders from certain death and spearheaded Project Confrontation against Birmingham’s violent police commissioner, Bull Connor. For his convictions, he was beaten and jailed, his Alabama home and church were bombed, and his wife stabbed.
In 1961, Rev. Shuttlesworth moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where he was pastor of Revelation Baptist Church, but he often returned to Birmingham to help support the Civil Rights Movement. Since 1966, he has served as the pastor of Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati. In 2000, the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce named Shuttlesworth “One of the Greatest Living Cincinnatians.”
The lecture is made possible through the Canisius College Oishei Teaching Professorship, which is funded by a generous $1.5 million gift from the John R. Oishei Foundation. The Oishei Professorship Program was created to provide Canisius’ best teachers with the resources to create innovative and effective teaching and learning styles.
For more information, contact Dr. Robert Butler, director of the Canisius College All-College Honors Program, at 888-2658.
Canisius College is one of 28 Jesuit Colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, communities and service to humanity.