The bronze statue of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth stands outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a fitting location for the man who was arguably the most important figure in Birmingham's civil rights struggle. Unlike the more nationally famous figures who came and went, Shuttlesworth lived here, built the movement here, and faced repeated bombings of his home and church without leaving.
Shuttlesworth founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956 after the NAACP was banned in Alabama. He invited Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC to Birmingham in 1963 specifically because he knew Birmingham was the most confrontational and public-facing target the movement could choose. The statue and the adjacent interpretive panels tell his story concisely.