A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (Religion & American Culture)

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are the most well known figures of the civil rights movement that emerged in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1950s, but in Andrew M. Manis's well-documented book, the contributions of the fiery Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, founder of the Alabama Movement for Human Rights, finally come to light. Manis paints a portrait of a God-fearing (but otherwise fearless) preacher cut in the mold of rebel slave leader Nat Turner, whose lawsuits, sit-ins of train and bus stations, and defiant pulpit orations helped tear down segregation in the South. But the reverend always had a firm sense of community: "Shuttlesworth conducted his civil rights activities with his hands still tightly grasping the pastoral reins of his local church," Manis writes. "His concern for social justice was central to his 'care of souls' and prophetic proclamation." Manis also shows the reader the professional and personal costs of Shuttlesworth's activities, from the 1956 bombing of his home to the constant tension with more conservative religious leaders in a community that considered his activism dangerous. In the end, however, Shuttlesworth's deeds earned him the praise of Birmingham's citizens, the beneficiaries of his courageous campaigns for equality. A Fire You Can't Put Out is a blazing blueprint pointing the way for future generations of activists to continue the struggle. --Eugene Holley Jr.