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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Update~Remembering Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, An American Hero

"The Lord knew I lived in a hard town, so he gave me a hard head."~Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
Click here to see a photo I snapped of Reverend Shuttlesworth being pushed in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama by the future President of the United States of America.

The legendary Birmingham, Alabama Civil Rights hero Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth made his transition from labor to reward on Wednesday in his beloved Bombingham.
He was the soul and heart of the Birmingham movement," Georgia Rep. John Lewis said. It was Birmingham, he said, that brought the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"Fred Shuttlesworth had the vision, the determination never to give up, never to give in," Lewis said. "He led an unbelievable children's crusade. It was the children who faced dogs, fire hoses, police billy clubs that moved and shook the nation."

A decade before that infamous standoff between authorities and young protesters in Kelly Ingram Park, Shuttlesworth was already pushing for change in what had come to be called "Bombingham." Dozens of black homes and churches were bombed, the cases rarely investigated by the city's all-white police force. In 1955, the charismatic young pastor of Bethel Baptist Church led a delegation of ministers who petitioned for black police officers.
Reverend Shuttlesworth was known as the racist worst enemy because he was fearless.
In his 1963 book "Why We Can't Wait," King called Shuttlesworth "one of the nation's the most courageous freedom fighters ... a wiry, energetic and indomitable man."

He survived a 1956 bombing, an assault during a 1957 demonstration, chest injuries when Birmingham authorities turned fire hoses on demonstrators in 1963, and countless arrests.

"I went to jail 30 or 40 times, not for fighting or stealing or drugs," Shuttlesworth told grade school students in 1997. "I went to jail for a good thing, trying to make a difference."
Diane McWhorter, the author of “Carry Me Home,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book about the struggle in Birmingham, wrote in an e-mail that Mr. Shuttlesworth was known among some civil rights activists as “the Wild Man from Birmingham.”

“Among the youthful ‘elders’ of the movement,” she added, “he was Martin Luther King’s most effective and insistent foil: blunt where King was soothing, driven where King was leisurely, and most important, confrontational where King was conciliatory — meaning, critically, that he was more upsetting than King in the eyes of the white public.”

Mr. Shuttlesworth was temperamental, even obstinate, and championed action and confrontation over words. He could antagonize segregationists and allies alike, quarreling with his allies behind closed doors.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth in his own words. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965; Episode 101-36


You must remember that since uh, I had been building up a lot of momentum and I was known all over. So that, we say that if you don't rescind the law, we're going to ride the buses anyway, which was an implied threat. Uh, they didn't do it, the Ku Klux Klan uh, saw to it that I wouldn't be around to ride the buses, so we were going to ride the buses, I believe it was the night after Christmas, but on Christmas Night in '56 the Klan set about uh, 16 sticks of dynamite right at the head of my bed, the corner of the church, the corner of the house and I was in the bed at the point of the blast. And this dynamite went off about 9:15. It blew the wall between my head and the dynamite away, it blew the floor out from under my bed, space of I guess, 15 feet. The springs that I was lying on we never found them.

There I was lying on the mattress. I knew the relevance of Moses' statement when he said, "Underneath the everlasting arm." The roof uh, came down, all that dust, the house was about 60 years old, dynamite dust and blast was, smoke, other things were there. This is a strange thing, I, I knew that the bomb was meant for me, I knew what it was, and instantaneously, at the same time I had a sense of presence that I wouldn't get hurt. I knew that. You can know something you never read. And I, I might say to you at that moment all fear was taken from me. I never feared anything since that time.
Reverend Shuttlesworth is equally important to American history as Steve Jobs. They were two great Americans, one revolutionized Civil Rights and the other revolutionized consumer products. But in the end it can be said they helped others more than they helped themselves.

Well done thy good and faithful servants.

Rest in peace.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Confirmed! California spree killer was racially motivated.
Despite being the worlds worst employee and a serious danger to co-workers, Allman remained employed. Did the company keep him out of fear of a NAACP lawsuit?

Once again, CofCC.org was ahead of the curve. We immediately noticed similarities between the California shooting spree and the racially motivated workplace shooting spree in Manchester, CT of 2010. In both incidents a poor performing black employee accused his co-workers of fictional “racism” and them murdered a bunch of them. In both cases the company involved appears to have gone out of it’s way to placate and coddle the black employee turned spree killer. Also in both cases, black friends and family immediately rushed to defend the killer.

Click here to see old CofCC.org coverage of Manchester, CT racially motivated workplace spree killing.

We know know that Shareef Allman was a hardcore, long time race hustler. He hosted a public access show on black racial issues. He had also been active with the NAACP for years. Despite killing three people, local NAACP are still heaping praise on him.

We have now learned that he was a terrible employee, and used race as a weapon to excuse his bad behavior. Following a series of reprimands, he showed up at work and calmly began shooting white and Latino co-workers.

From San Jose Mercury News…

Allman had worked at the plant for 15 years. While he was respected by his wide circle of friends in San Jose’s African-American community, he had a poor performance record at the company, Ambrosio said. Allman felt as though the company, and some of his co-workers, were out to get him, Ambrosio said. Two weeks earlier, Allman had refused to pose for a photo with his colleagues at the plant, saying, “I don’t want to take my picture with back stabbers.”

Before the shooting began Wednesday, a supervisor was leading the weekly meeting, which included a discussion about rescheduling a farewell party for another employee. Allman piped up, Ambrosio said: “If we ain’t gonna have no party, give me my $10 back.” Then Allman “pulled out the gun and started.”

The supervisor, who was standing, was the first to go down after being shot three times, Ambrosio said. The Mercury News is not naming the supervisor because a reporter could not reach him or his family. He was sent to Stanford University Hospital where he remained late Wednesday. An additional eight men sitting in plastic chairs around the tables — all truck drivers — were hit as they tried to scramble to safety, including Ambrosio and his cousin Manuel Pinon.

“Why are you doing this?” some of the men asked as they tried to duck the bullets.

Ambrosio, 45, said he knew the answer as he lay bleeding under the table. If Allman wanted any of his co-workers dead, it might have been him.

The rampage came less than a week after Ambrosio confronted Allman, telling him that as his union shop steward, he would no longer represent him to management over the numerous safety violations he was accused of committing.

“He’s had so many accidents and always said that because he’s African-American, the company was after him,” Ambrosio said. “He was an unsafe driver.” Ambrosio said Allman had turned over a truck and snagged overhead wires when he left the truck bed in the air.

Last Thursday, Ambrosio told Allman that “no one has ever had so many accidents in the company like you have.”

Ambrosio set up a meeting Monday morning with management, telling officials that Allman’s safety record was so bad, his driving so reckless, that “the workers weren’t safe.”

Company officials, Ambrosio said, responded by encouraging his fellow drivers to document any further problems.

“The workers were tired of complaining and the company not doing anything,” Ambrosio said.

Redeye said...

F U, this thread is about Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth but I wouldn't expect you to respect his legacy or his memory because he was your worst enemy.

FED UP said...

I think he did some good things!! I have nothing negative to say at all! Just because I point things out showing a double standard does not make me a racist. I do not take credit for the above post. I am not afraid to sign my post.--FED UP

FED UP said...

You can't make up stuff better than this!

Isn't politics grand?
HURRAH FOR THE DEMOCRATS!
Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member

Mel Reynolds
Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat
Congressman Mel to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll.
Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused
in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree.
Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year
federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud,
and lies to the Federal Election Commission.
He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving
five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.

This is a first in American politics:
An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate
...won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate
...then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate!

His new job? Ready for this??




***** YOUTH COUNSELOR *****

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?

CONFIRMED BY:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/reynolds.asp

yellowdog said...

John Wayne Gacy.

Jeffrey Dahmer.

Ted Bundy.

In the mindless world of Effup, these 3 white serial killers demonstrate the proof that the white race should be condemned as psychopathic murderers.

The criminal acts and behaviors of individuals do not constitute an argument for condemning a race of people!

Just recently, Texas executed one of the white fellers convicted of dragging a black man in chains behind a pickup. Evidence that capital punisment is not a deterrent, some white boys are on trial for beating a black man, and then running him over with a pickup - on videotape.

White people are violent racists! These 2 cases of individual criminal behavior prove that?

Effup is an agent, a tool, of the conservative manipulators. His BS is really not worth comment, but on the other hand, should we stand by and let idiots spout their racist crap without comment?

If you want to find racism in America, you have to follow Redeye's fundamental philosophy - racism has to come from power and produce results.

Real facts are indisputable. Unemployment, wealth, education, opportunity, justice system - show any statistic based on race where Black is equal to all races, all people.

And then explain again how the victims are responsible?

Redeye said...

Yellowdog said-Effup is an agent, a tool, of the conservative manipulators. His BS is really not worth comment, but on the other hand, should we stand by and let idiots spout their racist crap without comment?

Which is exactly why I don't ban F U. Thank you for speaking up Yellowdog. I'm glad to know all white people don't think like F U. :)

Unknown said...

Bundy? Being racist?

Let me guess because he only killed white women. He didn't just kill them either. He kept a severed head in his room-washed her hair and applied make up and kissed her good bye every day.