Civil Rights Leader Fred Shuttlesworth Dies At 89

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Alabama and Cincinnati, Ohio died on October 5, 2011 at age 89.

(Above--Rev. Shuttlesworth.)

Rev. Shuttlesworth was one of the most significant figures of the Civil Rights movement.

Rev. Shuttlesworth called Martin Luther King to Birmingham and was beaten severely fighting for the cause of equal rights for all Americans.

Rev. Shuttlesworth's death was overshadowed by the death the same day of Steve Jobs.

While I'm sorry Mr. Jobs died at only 56 years old, the revolution that Rev. Shuttlesworth was part of the more significant event in our history.

I was lucky enough to know Fred Shuttlesworth.

In Cincinnati I ran the office of former a City Councilmember named Tyrone Yates. Tyrone knew Rev. Shuttlesworth and sometimes the Reverend would come by the office at Cincinnati City Hall.

This was in the early 1990's.

Tyrone and I once took a chartered bus to Birmingham to attend the opening of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

As part of our time in Birmingham, Reverend Shuttlesworth led us and members of his church in Cincinnati on a tour of civil rights sites in Birmingham.

Among the places we saw was the jail where Martin Luther King wrote his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

I wish I'd had an iPhone at the time. If I had an iPhone I might have taken pictures of the tour that I could use on this blog post today.

Of greater significance however than even the iPhone, are the Civil Rights gains of the past 50 years.

Though there is still much work to be done for the freedom and equality of all people.