Birmingham Alabama 1961-Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Gone Home

I wrote this in 2008 on 11/ 11/08 after Theodore Gaffney shared his story about a picture (the black and white photos )of the Freedom Riders and Rev Fred Shuttlesworth and how Shuttlesworth saved their lives. Shuttlesworth died October 5, 2011.

It was a different world for Theodore Gaffney also known as SirGaffney back in 1961. Gaffney reflects back on a time when African-American males were beat down for just integrating a bus as the nation prepares to witness the first African-American to become President of the United States.

Gaffney has a special picture that captured the mood of 1961. The picture was taken in 1961 but did not surface until February 26, 2006 in a newspaper article entitled Unseen but not Forgotten. Several of the folks were named by the article but Gaffney was misidentified and two listed as unknown.

Gaffney wearing an Obama skullcap talks about how he called the newspaper to correct the name. The picture shows Gaffney as a young man and others around a Greyhound Bus in discussion on how to get out of Birmingham Alabama. Forty-Seven years ago Gaffney was working as a photographer along with reporter Newson following freedom fighters. Freedom fighters,


Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the outspoken pastor of Birmingham's Bethel Baptist Church and the leader of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, to give him the exact arrival times of the two "Freedom Buses," the normally unflappable minister offered an alarming picture of what the Freedom Riders could expect once they reached Birmingham. The city was alive with rumors that a white mob planned to greet the Riders at the downtown bus stations.


Gaffney was hoping for James Farmer to be in Birmingham on that day. But according to Gaffney, Farmer's father became sick. Farmer had to fly to his father's bedside. Gaffney wanted to see Farmer response to the terrorist Bull Connor.



Instead Gaffney and the reporter found themselves without a bus ride out of Alabama when the Greyhound driver declared, you may be freedom fighters but he was not and he was not driving the Greyhound bus. Gaffney pointing at at the photo of Rev. Fred Shuttleworth stated, that it would be Shuttlesworth and his church that would come to their aid and get him and Newson to the airport.

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