Finally Birmingham leaders King and Shuttlesworth came to agreement to end the marches with businessmen's group commitment to end segregation.

In 1998 Shuttlesworth became an early signer and supporter of the Birmingham Pledge, a grassroots community commitment to combating racism and prejudice.

Shuttlesworth participated in the sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in 1960 and took part in the organization and completion of the Freedom Rides in 1961.

Shuttlesworth originally warned that Alabama was extremely volatile when he was consulted before the Freedom Rides began.

After it became certain that the Freedom Rides were to be carried out, Shuttlesworth worked with the Congress of Racial Equality to organize the Rides and became engaged with ensuring the success of the rides, especially during their stint in Alabama.

Shuttlesworth took in the Freedom Riders at the Bethel Baptist Church, allowing them to recuperate after the violence that had occurred earlier in the day.

However, the actions of supporters like Shuttlesworth gave James Farmer, the leader of C. O. R. E., which had originally organized the Freedom Rides, and other activists the courage to press forward.

After the violence that occurred in Alabama but before the Freedom Riders could move on, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave Shuttlesworth his personal phone number in case the Freedom Riders needed federal support.

* White, Marjorie Longenecker ( 1998 ) A Walk to Freedom: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

Shuttlesworth and other heroes of the movement, there are three installations by artist James Drake which flank a circular " Freedom Walk ".

Shuttlesworth noted that he respected the courage of the activists proposing the Rides but that he felt other actions could be taken to accelerate the Civil Rights Movement that would be less dangerous.

The Riders then decided to take a plane to New Orleans ( where they had planned on finishing the Rides ) and were assisted by Shuttlesworth in getting to the airport and onto the plane.

The airport was renamed in July 2008 after Fred Shuttlesworth.

The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth.

Martin Luther King III resigned in 2004, upon which Fred Shuttlesworth was elected to replace him.

Shuttlesworth resigned the same year that he was appointed, complaining that " deceit, mistrust, and a lack of spiritual discipline and truth have eaten at the core of this once-hallowed organization ".

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth ( March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011 ), born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U. S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama.

Born in Mount Meigs, Alabama, Shuttlesworth became pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953 and was Membership Chairman of the Alabama state chapter of the NAACP in 1956, when the State of Alabama formally outlawed it from operating within the state.

Similarly, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, was unconstitutional, Shuttlesworth announced that the ACMHR would challenge segregation laws in Birmingham on December 26, 1956.

Shuttlesworth somehow escaped unhurt even though his house was heavily damaged.

Shuttlesworth told him to tell the Klan that he was not leaving and " I wasn't saved to run.

Shuttlesworth embraced that philosophy, even though his own personality was combative, headstrong and sometimes blunt-spoken to the point that he frequently antagonized his colleagues in the movement as well as his opponents.

Shuttlesworth was apparently personally fearless, even though he was aware of the risks he ran.

When Shuttlesworth prepared the Riders to leave Birmingham and they reached the Greyhound Terminal, the Riders found themselves stranded as no bus driver was willing to drive the controversial group into Mississippi.

While Shuttlesworth was willing to negotiate with political and business leaders for peaceful abandonment of segregation, he believed, with good reason, that they would not take any steps that they were not forced to take.

In 1963 Shuttlesworth was set on provoking a crisis that would force the authorities and business leaders to recalculate the cost of segregation.

In 1978, Shuttlesworth was portrayed by Roger Robinson in the television miniseries King.

Although he was born Freddie Lee Robinson, Shuttlesworth took the name of his stepfather, William N. Shuttlesworth.

Shuttlesworth was married to Ruby Keeler Shuttlesworth, with whom he had four children: Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill, Ruby Shuttlesworth Bester, Fred L. Shuttlesworth Jr., and Carolyn Shuttlesworth.

Even Jesus Shuttlesworth, the fictional baller played by Ray Allen in He's < sup > sic </ sup > Got Game went there.

Locally the movement's activists were led by Fred Shuttlesworth, a fiery preacher who became legendary for his fearlessness in the face of violence, notably a string of racially motivated bombings that earned Birmingham the derisive nickname " Bombingham ".

The father of the top-ranked basketball prospect in the country, Jesus Shuttlesworth ( played by NBA star Ray Allen ).

* In the sports drama He Got Game, Denzel Washington's character Jake Shuttlesworth accidentally kills his wife by pushing her while arguing with his son Jesus.

Shuttlesworth, proposed to support those students ' demands in 1963 by widespread demonstrations, challenging both Birmingham's segregation laws and Local Police Commissioner Bull Connor's authority, Gaston opposed the plan and tried to deflect the campaign from public confrontation into negotiations with white business leaders.

In May 1956 Shuttlesworth and Ed Gardner established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to take up the work formerly done by the NAACP.

On December 25, 1956, unknown persons tried to kill Shuttlesworth by placing sixteen sticks of dynamite under his bedroom window.

Shuttlesworth himself vowed to " kill segregation or be killed by it ".

Prompted by Shuttlesworth, Kennedy tried to find a replacement bus driver.

The father of the top-ranked basketball prospect in the country, Jesus Shuttlesworth ( played by NBA star Ray Allen ), Jake is released on parole for a week by the state's governor in order to persuade his son to play for the governor's alma mater in exchange for a heavily-reduced prison sentence.

Jesus Shuttlesworth ( Ray Allen ), an extremely talented high school basketball player from Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York is being pursued by the top college programs in the nation.

On May 20, 1961, when all the other riders had left the bus terminal, five of the female riders phoned Shuttlesworth, who relayed their whereabouts to Diane Nash.