"You can outlaw an organization, but you cannot outlaw the will of a people to be free."

"You can outlaw an organization, but you cannot outlaw the will of a people to be free." This is a quote from Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.  I wrote about him a bit a couple of days ago, but we had a presentation about him today, and I feel compelled to say a few more things.  First of all he was known as the man most feared by segregationists in the South. Nothing caused him to back down.  I mention the Christmas night, 1956 bombing of his house--what I did not say was that the dynamite was place underneath the front corner of his house, directly under his bed.  He was in bed when the explosion occurred.  His bed was lifted into the air, and he ended up in a crater, with only a scratch.  He was able to crawl out of the house. Outside, there was a furious crowd ready to attack the police. Shuttlesworth came out of the house and calmed them down, reminding them that non-violence was the only acceptable response. And then, the next day, he made sure he was in downtown Birmingham to be one of the first to sit on the bus the first day of court ordered integration.
In Sept., 1957, he attempted to enroll his children in the all white Phillips High School--he was nearly beaten to death (one of his attackers would later be one of the bombers of the 16th St. Baptist Church), and his wife was stabbed in the hip.  He was taken to the hospital,
but the next day left the hospital to attend a movement meeting he was scheduled to attend, again, working to keep the movement non-violent.
He is clearly the unsung hero of the civil rights movement.  But he was wise enough to know that he had to invite ML King to Birmingham, because King would bring the national media with him.
An incredible man of faith!
Tomorrow promises to be an extremely interesting day--we'll be touring 16th St. Baptist Church (site of Sept. 15 bombing that killed 4 girls), hear from Carol McKinstry who survived the bombing, talk with one of the freedom riders from 1961, and hear from G. Douglas Jones, the federal attorney who successfully prosecuted the church bombers, years after the murder of the 4 little girls.  Tomorrow night is a final program with singing by the Carlton Reese Memorial Unity Choir.