Phillips High School

Phillips High School. (Now Phillips Academy). , Built 1923, 2316 7th Ave N. , Phillips High School was the flagship school in the center of Birmingham. It was named for John Herbert Phillips, the city's highly-esteemed first school superintendent, who served from 1883 until his death in 1921. It gained national recognition when, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools unconstitutional, a frustrated Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and other Black parents attempted to enroll their children there. When he went to register them on September 9, 1957, a mob viciously beat him and stabbed his wife, Ruby, in the hip. Their daughter, Ruby Fredricka, suffered a sprained ankle during the incident. Despite the violence against him and his family, Rev. Shuttlesworth attended a rally later that night and urged supporters not to react with violence. The school admitted its first African American students in 1964. Today, Phillips Academy is a pre-kindergarten through 8th grade school focused on academic excellence for its students. ,

"This is a fight between right and wrong, good and evil, fair play versus tyranny." , , Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth , Birmingham Foot Soldier General in his 1958 report to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR).

, National Register of Historic Places , Destination, Lesson C35: Explore how the religious beliefs of Movement ministers convinced them that nonviolence had to be a strategic weapon in their struggle for civil and human rights.