ACMHR & the Student Activists

ACMHR and the Student Activists. March Route for Moral Justice. Because of his fearlessness, college student activists who staged sit-ins and integrated bus rides in the 1960s knew they could depend on support from Rey. Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR. He supported Miles College student leader Frank Dukes and his classmates who created the first "Selective Buying Campaign" (economic boycotts were illegal in Alabama). Their goal was to force downtown Birmingham department stores to hire Black sales clerks and to remove degrading racially discriminatory signs on water fountains and bathrooms. Rev. Shuttlesworth also came to the rescue of the 1961 Freedom Riders who were attacked in Anniston, Birmingham and Montgomery when their interstate buses came into Alabama., Paired marker , May 14-22, 1961 , Nashville college student Diane Nash, a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), called on Rev. Shuttlesworth when a group of Freedom Riders became stranded in Anniston. After an angry White mob burned their bus, he sent 15 cars of Bethel guards to bring them to Birmingham for medical care and a safe place to stay. He and his church members also took in a group of Freedom Riders who arrived on another bus in Birmingham, where “Bull” Connor gave another angry White mob at least 15 minutes to badly beat them before sending in police. Rev. Shuttlesworth fended off police who tried to arrest the Black and White riders for breaking local segregation laws. He helped get the seriously wounded riders out of town and the others back on their quest to integrate bus stations across the South. He also went to Montgomery when the riders were attacked there. , "Fred was a legend. He would not back down. He would not sell out. You could count on that.” , Diane Nash , Civil rights leader who helped coordinate the 1961 Freedom Rides., Lesson F13: How were young people instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement? Name at least three SNCC members who became famous leaders.