Friday, October 07, 2011

Civil Rights Leader the Rev. Shuttlesworth Dies

Hetep and Respect one last time to a great civil rights soldier in one of the hot battles of the Cultural War c.1500 B.C.E. - 2011 C.E.

I remember as a young person watching the Rev. stand up to ol' `Bull' Connor, a criminally insane cop, who stood on the steps over him blocking African Americans from entering the building to register to vote. The Bull lunged at the rev and cracked him in the face with his billy club, blood went everywhere. The Rev. looked the Bull in his little cultural terrorist eyes and said, we are going to vote,you can beat us, but we will be back! (paraphrase)

As I looked for a video for this tribute to Rev. Shuttleworths I found plenty of history but what was needed as I found out was a way to let you feel what it might have felt like to sit in the Rev's church and feel his spirit. And to maybe let you feel what his life and passing is saying to your/our spirit today. 
Let's Go To The Video Tape
To my Brothers and Sisters who fail to vote, do not fail the Rev. and us in 2012 - Wake the hell uP!

Remembering Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Video 2:45 See and hear the Rev yourself.

To understand a Civil Rights Soldier you must understand the Cultural Terrorist he was fighting. Bull Connor controlled the police department and fire department in Birmingham Alabama, and filled them with other Cultural Terrorists.

To have a good look at the face of overt Cultural Terrorism in America in the 60's that Rev. Shuttlesworth, as one of the big three generals of the Civil Rights Battle of the Cultural War helped to defeat, watch this video Click HERE.

As the old dirty South type Republicans continue the war against Americans voting today, we can learn from the courage of our ancestor.

He transitioned at 89 instead of 120. This should remind us all to work to improve our physical health, Cultural Health and Spiritual Health so that we might maximize our time and purpose in this life.

Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth your country thanks you for your service to her. Your community thanks you and we continue to look to your leadership honorable ancestor.

R.I.P
Go to the lead video and feel the Rev's spirit one more time before you leave this part of the piece.

Amplify’d from www.newsvine.com (join a discussion on MSNBC/Neswsvine) see my original thoughts on hearing the news of the Revs transition. 

Civil rights leader the Rev. Shuttlesworth dies

BIRMINGHAM — The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who was bombed, beaten and repeatedly arrested in the fight for civil rights and hailed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for his courage and tenacity, has died. He was 89.
FILE - In this June 28, 2007 file photo, civil rights activist the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth departs the Federal Courthouse in Montgomery, Ala. Shuttlesworth, who was hailed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for his courage and energy, died Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 at teh Birmingham, Ala. hospital. He was 89. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
"My church was a beehive," Shuttlesworth once said. "I made the movement. I made the challenge. Birmingham was the citadel of segregation, and the people wanted to march."
In his 1963 book "Why We Can't Wait," King called Shuttlesworth "one of the nation's most courageous freedom fighters ... a wiry, energetic and indomitable man."
Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered city flags lowered to half-staff until after Shuttleworth's funeral. Bell, who is black, said he would not be mayor if not for leaders like Shuttlesworth.
"I went to jail 30 or 40 times, not for fighting or stealing or drugs," Shuttlesworth told grade school students in 1997. "I went to jail for a good thing, trying to make a difference."
Alabama's first black federal judge, U.W. Clemon, said Shuttlesworth flung himself at injustice well knowing he could be killed at any moment. "He was the first black man I knew who was totally unafraid of white folks," said Clemon, who retired from the bench and is now a privately practicing attorney.
And in November 2008, Shuttlesworth watched from a hospital bed as Sen. Barack Obama was elected the nation's first African-American president. The year before, Obama had pushed Shuttlesworth's wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during a commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march — a moment Obama recalled Wednesday.
In the early 1960s, Shuttlesworth had invited King back to Birmingham. Televised scenes of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on black marchers, including children, in the spring of 1963 helped the rest of the nation grasp the depth of racial animosity in the Deep South.
. "He marched into the jaws of death every day in Birmingham before we got there," said Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador who served as an aide to King.
"When God made Bull Connor, one of the real negative forces in this country, He was sure to make Fred Shuttlesworth." Lowery said.
Read more at www.newsvine.com

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