Civil rights activist from the ’60s speaks at local baptist church

Civil rights activist the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth urged people on Sunday to become involved in the civil rights movement for the future by not forgetting the past.\nShuttlesworth gave a speech at the Bloomington Second Baptist Church, 321 N. Rogers St.\nDuring the 1950s and ’60s, Shuttlesworth was arrested more than 30 times for his various attempts to gain rights for blacks in Alabama, he said.\n“I’m known for being a notorious violator,” he said. “If I didn’t do something, I’d begin to get the jail-house itch.”\nShuttlesworth, 84, has been active in the civil rights movement for more than 60 years, though he is now retired. He worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, the Rev. Andrew Young and many others.\nA.B. Assensoh, director of graduate studies and admissions for the IU Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, said Shuttlesworth’s biggest accomplishments include working with King and others to desegregate Alabama’s public buses and establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which became one of the leading civil rights organizations.\nMary Smith-Forrest, a Second Baptist Church member and a coordinator of the event, said bringing such a prominent figure of the civil rights movement was important.\n“A lot of the icons from that time period are gone, and he’s one of the ones that are still alive,” she said. “So we wanted to do what we could do to get him here for as many people to see as possible.”\nSmith-Forrest said Shuttlesworth delivered a valuable message from the past that will affect the future.\n“Some of the people of today need to learn where they came from, and that will make them a better person in the present,” she said. “Then they can compare for the future generations.”\nShuttlesworth recalled many well-known stories from his work with the civil rights movement.\nOn Dec. 25, 1956, he said, an unknown person tried to kill him and his family by placing 16 sticks of dynamite outside his bedroom window.\nHe escaped from his house unharmed. When he was advised to leave town, he responded, “I wasn’t saved to run.”\nShuttlesworth received a standing ovation from the full congregation after his speech.\n“I hope people came to be inspired by this man, to be inspired by what he has done, to hear the things that happened in the turbulent ’60s and learn how he got through that period unscathed,” Smith-Forrest said.\n“Above all,” Assensoh said, “students, as leaders of tomorrow, should take the time to listen to great leaders like Reverend Shuttlesworth so that they will know the true history of the movement.”