Along with Martin Luther king, reverend Fred Shuttlesworth founded the southern christian Leadership Conference in 1957. Up next, brief remarks from reverend shuttlesworth who died in 2011. Then we hear about the impact of his work from an alabama historian. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] now, church right [indiscernible] thered shuttlesworth was black baptist minister who central nerve center of the Civil Rights Movement in birmingham. He was an officer, one of the original officers of kings southern christian Leadership Conference, but they were more in thetes and friends ministry. It is often said the people around king are referred to as kings lieutenants. Shuttlesworth was never a lieutenant in the sense that he never worked for king. Although he was less known. So that the major demonstrations of 1963, which arguably are the watershed events of the Civil Rights Movement, the first really big victory other than the montgomery boycott. Those five weeks of demonstrations in 1963 were work on seven years of that shuttlesworth had done in birmingham, battling segregation and, of course, the commissioner of Public Safety whose icon who is an icon of Southern Resistance to integration, bull connor. There was a great deal of drama leading up to, in those latter years of the 50s and first couple years of the 60s, and it was shuttlesworth who invited, in fact insisted that king come to birmingham. It took a while for king to , but heo do that finally did in 1963, coming to the same opinion about birmingham that shuttlesworth as segregation went in birmingham so it would go in the nation. As theham was well known most segregated city in the south and the one most committed to maintaining segregation. Worked thesever birds if they dont keep them separate. You got to keep the white and the blacks separate. In 1958, connor was doing a number of things. He was in charge of the Police Department and the Fire Department. ,ne of the things he was doing using the Police Department to give tickets to people who parked their cars at the mass meetings. In addition to that, he would send the Fire Department to interrupt the meetings on the pretense of there being fire hazards. This happened several times during that year. Shuttlesworth became impatient with this. After the fourth or fifth time this had happened, and the fire chief came in, they got into a confrontation, favorable copper tape a verbal confrontation. He stand in stood in the middle of the church imploring him to order the crowd to move to to vacate the building. Either in the meeting or take it to another venue. Said, if this is bull just trying to stampede the meeting, we are going to stay here forever. You will have to drag us out. No, this is for real. This is a real fire hazard. In and again he gave gave the order for the people to vacate. But then he got in one last thing or and he said chief, you know their eight no fire in here there is no fire in here. The fire that is in here you cant put out with hoses and axes. When i read that story, i thought that is the title. Expect the mayor in the deep south. I expected to be killed. The montgomery boycott had just ended and so saw the shuttlesworth decided that if the segregation was unconstitutional in montgomery it must be unconstitutional a hundred miles north in birmingham. So he went to the press and said the decision has been made in birmingham or rather in montgomery, it is time to make these changes in birmingham. So we will give the Transit Company until the day after christmas to make the changes voluntarily. If that doesnt happen, i and x number of my followers will board the buses and sit in the front on a firstcome, firstserved basis, beginning on the morning of december 26, christmas night as he lay in his bed, a bomb was had been essentially under his floor in the crawlspace of his home. , as it turnedder out, shuttlesworths bed. Essentiallyd was bomb,et away from the which has 16 sticks of dynamite or so. It blew him up and out of the bed. The mattress somewhat shielded emerged with a slight bump on the head, but no major injuries. On this occasion, shuttlesworth , thereis pants, went out was some anger and some weapons being brandished. He gave a short nonviolence speech, saying this is not the time or place for that. And the clan planted that bomb and that bomb had my name on it but god erased it off. He saved me to lead the fight. So the next day, in spite of the bombing and in spite of the destruction of the front side of also some damage to the church because the parsonage in the church was immediately adjacent to each other. He led the first integrated. Ffort to ride the buses 22 people, not including shuttlesworth himself were arrested that day. His being saved from that experience convinced the working class followers of shuttlesworth , poor and working class, not middle class, black families. This was a poorer church. Not just the church. By then, he had founded an Organization Called the Alabama Christian Movement for human rights. Old atabout six months the time of the bombing. Interviewed one of the women at the church. She was in her teens when the bombing took place and was gathered outside the home. , if we had actually been there to observe jesus walking on water, we would not have been any more reverent than we were when we saw shuttlesworth come out of that house alive. People that to tell i am not superman. Tonights look at the people and places in the struggle for civil rights as part of our cspan cities to her. We travel across the country highlighting the literary life and history of each city we visit. Website,re, go to our cspan. Org, and click on series, and then click on cspan cities tour. Historyns american tour next friday focuses on native americans. We start off with the battle of the little bighorn, also known as custers last and. Stand. Last floridah mission in devoted to converting native americans to christianity. More now from cspan stewart of the people, places and events of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, the ku klux klan bombed the 16th street apt is church in birmingham alabama, killing four africanamerican girls