Civil rights leader Shuttlesworth dies

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who endured arrests, bombings and beatings as a leader in the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Ala., died Wednesday.

Shuttlesworth, 89, returned to Birmingham in 2008 after spending many years in Ohio, The Birmingham News reported. He had a stroke in 2007.

Andrew Manis, author of a Shuttlesworth biography, "A Fire You Can't Put Out," described him as a rougher man than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights leaders. Shuttlesworth, a self-taught preacher, "had this fiery approach to whatever he was doing," Manis said.

As pastor of Bethel Baptist Church from 1953 to 1961, Shuttlesworth founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and led a fight to desegregated Birmingham's public buses. He was arrested 35 times and his children were also arrested during the bus battle.

In 1956, he was almost killed in a Christmas bombing that destroyed the church and parsonage.

'"Shuttlesworth was convinced that God saved him to lead the fight," Manis said.

After he moved to Cincinnati in the early 1960s, Shuttlesworth continued to spend a lot of time in Birmingham. He lived to see the Birmingham International Airport named in his honor and a statue placed outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.