Political Quotes

“I rise today to honor Rev. Fred Lee Shuttlesworth, an American civil rights hero who lived much of his adult life in Cincinnati who passed away this week at the age of 89. I come to the floor in support of a resolution with Senator Portman, my colleague from Cincinnati, where Reverend Shuttlesworth lived for many years, and also from Senator Shelby and Senator Sessions, both representing Alabama, where Reverend Shuttlesworth lived his earliest several decades and then the end of his life. Much is known about his life--the beatings, the bombings, the arrests and protests. He was born in 1922 in Alabama. He was a truckdriver who studied theology at night. He became an ordained minister in his twenties. By the 1950s, in his thirties, he was the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, the pulpit from which he became the powerful, fiery, outspoken leader against racial discrimination and injustice. When the Alabama NAACP was banned in the State, Reverend Shuttlesworth established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Churches held weekly meetings, membership grew month by month-- in large part because of Reverend Shuttlesworth's leadership skills-- and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights became the mass movement for Blacks in the South. He fought Birmingham's racism in the courtroom, bringing suits to desegregate public recreation facilities. He protested segregation of buses in Birmingham.…”