Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth became the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1953. In 1956 he established the Alabama Christian Movements for Human Rights and served as president of the group until 1969. The organization helped to organize boycotts and supported federal lawsuits against segregation in the state of Alabama. He was also the secretary of the SCLC from 1958 to 1970 and helped to organize the Freedom Rides. He was also a leader in organizing the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. Shuttlesworth moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1961 and continued to do his civil rights activism from there. In 2001 he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton.