Fred Shuttlesworth's Contribution To The Civil Rights Movement

Bailey Fuimaono
AFRAS 200
Dr. Reddick
March 19, 2015
Fred Shuttlesworth

From Project C to The Freedom Rides, every voice in the civil rights movement counted. If it was not for one very important voice, many of the civil rights demonstrations would have never been organized. That voice was Fred Shuttlesworth. Fred Shuttlesworth’s involvement was instrumental to the 1963 Birmingham Campaign. He helped to organize The Freedom Rides, Project C, and many youth protests, which were incredibly important to the progression of the civil rights movements. Through these efforts he helped change the course of the movement as a whole, and paved the way for human rights. In Fred Shuttlesworth work as a civil rights leader he worked tirelessly to ensure
that he was able to contribute to the Birmingham Campaign.
He started The Freedom Riders, which were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia, which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. The reason that it was important that he was a part of this was because he was the person that was behind the entire operation. He was the one that initially helped to get the entire thing started. Fred was the brains behind the operation, he had the initial idea that something needed to be done in response to Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia. He felt that the best option to this was to start the freedom riders. The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by civil rights activists Bayard Rustin and George Houser. Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin and a few other riders, chiefly members of the Congress of Racial Equality, were arrested and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating local Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation. The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Led by CORE Director James Farmer, 13 riders left Washington, DC, on Greyhound and Trailways buses. Their plan was to ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. Most of the Riders were from CORE, and two were from SNCC. Many were in their 40s and 50s. The Freedom Riders' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers by local custom throughout the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE and arrange bail for those who were arrested. Only minor trouble was encountered in Virginia and North Carolina, but John Lewis was attacked in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Some of the Riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina; Winnsboro, South Carolina; and Jackson, Mississippi. These rides are important because the Freedom Rides established great credibility with blacks and whites throughout the United States and inspired many people to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern blacks, impressed and inspired the many blacks living in rural areas throughout the South.
They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, who engaged in voter registration and other activities. Southern blacks generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength. The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in other subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South, freedom schools, and the Black Power movement. At the time, most blacks in southern states had been unable to register to vote, due to constitutions, laws and practices that had effectively disfranchised most of them since the turn of the 20th century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that highly educated blacks could not pass. The most incredible part of the Freedom Rides is that they still have an effect today. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Oprah Winfrey invited all living Freedom Riders to join her TV program to celebrate their legacy. The episode aired on May 4, 2011. On May 6–16, 2011, 40 college
students from across the United States embarked on a bus ride from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, retracing the original route of the Freedom Riders. The 2011 Student Freedom Ride, which was sponsored by PBS and American Experience, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides. Students met with civil rights leaders along the way and traveled with original Freedom Riders such as Ernest "Rip" Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bob Singleton, Helen Singleton, Jim Zwerg, and Charles Person. On May 16, 2011, PBS aired a documentary called Freedom Riders. Thanks to Fred Shuttlesworth this entire operation was started. Without him several generations of people would have never started this uplifting movement and it would not have given the support to the civil rights movement that it would have today.
Another very important movement that Fred Shuttlesworth was a part of was Project C.
Project C called for direct nonviolent action to attract media attention to "the biggest and baddest city of the South". In preparation for the protests, Walker timed the walking distance from the 16th Street Baptist Church, headquarters for the campaign, to the downtown area. He surveyed the segregated lunch counters of department stores, and listed federal buildings as secondary targets should police block the protesters' entrance into primary targets such as stores, libraries, and all-white churches. Fred Shuttlesworth was the start to this because he originally wanted to help protect Martin Luther King, since MLK’s presence was not fully welcomed in The South. The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including sit-ins at libraries and lunch counters, kneel-ins by black visitors at white churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a voter-registration drive. Most businesses responded by refusing to serve demonstrators. Some white spectators at a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter spat upon the participants. A few hundred protesters, including jazz musician Al Hibbler, were arrested, although Hibbler was immediately released by Connor. The SCLC's goals were to fill the jails with protesters to force the city government to negotiate as demonstrations continued. However, not enough people were arrested to affect the functioning of the
city and the wisdom of the plans were being questioned in the black community. The editor of The Birmingham World, the city's black newspaper, called the direct actions by the demonstrators "wasteful and worthless", and urged black citizens to use the courts to change the city's racist policies. Most white residents of Birmingham expressed shock at the demonstrations. White religious leaders denounced King and the other organizers, saying that "a cause should be pressed in the courts and the negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets". Some white Birmingham residents were supportive as the boycott continued. When one black woman entered Loveman's department store to buy her children Easter shoes, a white saleswoman said to her, "Negro, ain't you ashamed of yourself, your people out there on the street getting put in jail and you in here spending money and I'm not going to sell you any, you'll have to go some other place." King promised a protest every day until "peaceful equality had been assured" and expressed doubt that the new mayor would ever voluntarily desegregate the city. Without Fred’s help with this campaign it would have been impossible to get MLK down to the South in order to lead protests. This campaign was important to the civil rights movement because it helped bring national and international attention to racist violence in Birmingham. Fear that unrest might spread provoked a meeting of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy with James Baldwin and other Black leaders. It also made reputation of Martin Luther King soared after the protests in Birmingham, and he was lauded by many as a hero. The SCLC was much in demand to effect change in many Southern cities. The Birmingham campaign convinced President Kennedy to address the severe inequalities between black and white citizens in the South: "The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them." Despite the apparent lack of immediate local success after the Birmingham campaign, Fred Shuttlesworth and Wyatt Tee Walker pointed to its influence on national affairs as its true impact. President Kennedy's administration drew up the Civil Rights Act bill. After being filibustered for 75 days by "diehard southerners" in Congress, it was passed into law in 1964 and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The Civil Rights Act applied to the entire nation, prohibiting racial discrimination in employment and in access to public places. Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, however, disagreed that the Birmingham campaign was the primary force behind the Civil Rights Act. Wilkins gave credit to other movements, such as the Freedom Rides, the integration of the University of Mississippi, and campaigns to end public school segregation. The campaign also made an impact on the schools in the South. Birmingham's public schools were integrated in September 1963. Governor Wallace sent National Guard troops to keep black students out but President Kennedy reversed Wallace by ordering the troops to stand down. Violence continued to plague the city, however. Someone threw a tear gas canister into Loveman's department store when it complied with the desegregation agreement; twenty people in the store required hospital treatment.
In conclusion, there is a lot of things that Fred Shuttlesworth did to help out this movement. He used his power and stance to move this campaign in a direction that made it possible to make a worldwide effect. Not only did it make a worldwide impression, but it also made a lingering impression on the United States. Even today there are still aspects from this movement that are used in society. Such as the anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Without Fred’s involvement there would not have been as big of a movement and it would not have been possible to create this campaign.