Alabama NewsCenter — Birmingham school renames auditorium to honor Alabama civil rights icon, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

By: Keisa Sharpe-Jefferson

Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill, 80 – daughter of legendary Birmingham civil rights leader Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth – said she tries to make as many events as she can to honor her father. But the one that took place last month brought back tough memories.

Massengill and her sister, Ruby Shuttlesworth Bester, 78, were in Birmingham to attend a ceremony dedicating the J.H. Phillips Academy auditorium in their father’s name.

In 1957, Shuttlesworth was brutally beaten and hospitalized after he attempted to enroll his daughters in what was then all-white Phillips High School. His wife, Ruby Keeler Shuttlesworth, was stabbed in the leg. Bester also was injured.

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