NEWS :from Southern Conference Education~l Fund, Inc. 3210 West BroadWay, Louisville, K• •. 40211 Telephone: (502) 774-3331 or 776-78711 June 8, 1966 BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- --The Rev. Fred L, Shuttle~orth announced that he plans to retire a.e president of the Alabe.ma Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in September or October. The announcement was made at the lOth-anniversary meetl.ug of ACMRR here. The organization was :founded by Mr. Shuttlesworth and others on June 5, 1956, when the NAACP was outlawed in .~abama. At that time r,~r. Shuttlesworth declared: "They may outlaw an organi­ zation 'but th.ey cannot outlaw a people determined to be f'r.ee. " The NAACP has s.ince been rest.qred to legal operation in Alabama after a long fight in 'the courts. r~. Shuttlesworth sa~d he will continue his leadership in. the Southern civil-rights movement through his positJ.ons as president of the Southern Con'f'erence Ed\tcaidonal Fund {SCEF), based in Louisville, Ky. , and as ;oec- retary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCI~) , Atlanta, Ga. "I , ;;- 7e kept t)'le faith so that now the Movement can see victory in the distance," Mr. Shuttlesworth t old the anniversary rally at 17th Street A,O.H. Church of rrod. "You now see the Promised Land ju.st across tl;l.e r:J.ver of a little more sacrifice. I believe that you will now allow me to st ep down from the rol e of leadership and turn it over to the capable hands of' others who are now t -tned for that purpose . "I have discussed thi:s with the bo~n·d and the very subject causes neavJ.ness as we d~scu.ss how we struggled together through t:ne dangers of the pas~ ." more SCEF release--page 2 The minister, who formerly past ored a church i n Birmingham, recalled that the AC1\1HR was f ounded J.n a "most difficult , danger­ ous, and un'heal thy climate'' in this city. "Good white people were kept silent because of fear and circumstance. The -voi ce of bru­ tality, violence, and dynamite was loud in the l and," he said . nrr. Shuttlesworth remembered how he and his family were stabbed and peaten when the Shuttles1vorth chi l dr€n tried to enroll at t he Philli.ps HJ.gh School before it was i ntegrated. Later their home was blmm to pieces l'>'i th dynamite. The civi • - ~·ights leader also recalled the upsurge in Birming­ ham in 1963 which resulted in passage of the civil-rights act of 1964. He said the late President Kennedy to1d a meetil1g of civil­ r ights leaders: "Gentlemen, but for Birmingham a.>:~d what ·happened there we would not be here today." Thousands of demonstrators , including Mi. Shuttl esworth, were hosed and j ailed during the Birmingham prot est. The minister was injured when h .e was t hrown against a building by the force of water from a fire hose. He has alec achieved the distiuction of having f o-ugrt ru".:. ,;en :more cases l.n the u.s. Supreme Court t han any o-ther man in history. mr. Shuttlesworth is now pastor of a church in Cincinnat i. He has been p r esJ.dent of SC...,..... since 1963 and s ecretar y of SCLC since h e and Dr. King founded the organization in l957. I t i s expected that some appropriate cer emony will accompany Jllr. Shutt lesworth· s forma.l n . tiremen t as head of tlle .ACJilHR i n the f all. If .