A Fire You Can't Put out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth,
Book by Andrew M. Manis; University of Alabama Press, 1999

W hen Bull Connor swore the oath of office as commissioner of public safety on November 4,1957, he might as easily have been pledging his allegiance to the southern way of life and to resisting Fred Shuttlesworth so help me, God." In his inaugural address he argued the constitutionality of segregation laws and promised to enforce them in Birmingham "to the utmost of my ability and by all lawful means." Where Robert Lindbergh had waged a largely defensive war against ACMHR agitation, Connor took the offensive. Connor's return to power was the story of the year in white Birmingham, but in the black community Shuttlesworth ran unopposed for "Mr. Front Page," the Birmingham World's news maker of the year for 1957. Editor Emory Jackson wrote with prophetic insight, if not foresight, in calling Fred "the target figure of the bigots, controversial in his approach, outspoken in his convictions." 1 <52181870>