A new Alabama Public Television documentary explores the life and legacy of an unrelenting freedom fighter who inspired liberation movements all over the world.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, APT is premiering an original film about Birmingham civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 20. Shuttlesworth: Forged by Fire. Guided by Faith. features exclusive interviews with the late Birmingham icon, family members and colleagues, and digs deep into Shuttlesworth’s crucial contributions to the civil rights movement.
APT will present a premiere screening of the documentary at the historic Carver Theater in Birmingham on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. The free event will be followed by a discussion featuring the film’s producers and other guests. Learn more here.
“Shuttlesworth helped define the national consciousness during the mid- to late 20th century and into the 21st and amplified the integral role that Birmingham played as the catalyst in propelling the movement onto the national stage,” said Mike McKenzie, APT director of Programming and Public Information.
Beginning with his segregated childhood in Oxmoor Valley, the documentary “Shuttlesworth” follows the pastor’s work through Bethel Baptist Church, the Birmingham Campaign and the reactionary violence unleashed by the white power structure of the city in the 1960s, McKenzie said. Through this lens, “Shuttlesworth” examines the city of Birmingham, its unique history and culture, and how the city became the symbol for social justice and the American civil rights movement.
Shuttlesworth was born on March 18, 1922, and died on Oct. 5, 2011. He was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helped establish the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights after the state of Alabama outlawed the NAACP in 1956. Shuttlesworth worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., among many other leaders fighting racism in Alabama and America. The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was named in his honor in 2008.
“Shuttlesworth” features interviews with a wide range of authors, experts and community and political leaders, including former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Martha Bouyer, former U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon, Robert Corley, Andrew Manis, Pulitzer Prize winner Diane McWhorter, Janice Kelsey, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, Bishop Calvin Woods and Odessa Woolfolk, emeritus director of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
On Christmas Day in 1956, dynamite placed by the Ku Klux Klan destroyed the Shuttlesworth home, but the family miraculously escaped unharmed. “He was sure he was saved by God to lead a movement,” McKenzie said.
Klansmen attacked Shuttlesworth and his wife, Ruby, in 1957 when they attempted to enroll their children in an all-white public school in Birmingham. The following year a bomb was removed from beneath Bethel Baptist before exploding. In 1960, Shuttlesworth joined sit-ins at segregated public lunch counters, and the next year he helped organize the Freedom Rides. He vowed to “kill segregation or be killed by it.”
Shuttlesworth was featured in the landmark television documentary series “Eyes on the Prize” in 1987 and in “Freedom Riders” in 2010. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
The new documentary was produced in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, city of Birmingham and Historic Bethel Baptist Church, McKenzie said. It was made possible with the support of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the Alabama Power Foundation, Medical Properties Trust, The Comer Foundation, Robert R. Meyer Foundation, Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation and Alabama Civil Rights Trail.
