By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

AVONDALE - The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who battled Bull Connor in Birmingham and marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has been named interim president and chief executive of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Shuttlesworth, 81, replaces King's son, Martin Luther King III, who resigned to take over the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change from his brother, Dexter. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a nonprofit human rights organization, was founded by King Jr. in 1957.

"I consider myself an old soldier on this battlefield," said Shuttlesworth, who fought to overturn segregation beginning in the 1950s. "This is a time when the SCLC needs me and the country needs the SCLC to return to its Christian principles."

Shuttlesworth, pastor of Greater New Light Baptist Church in Avondale, was a founding member and organizer of the Atlanta-based organization and has served as both its secretary and vice president. Appointed Friday, he is expected to serve six to eight months.

"Reverend Shuttlesworth was a natural fit to serve in this position until a permanent candidate can be identified," said Dr. Claud R. Young, the organization's national board chairman. "His knowledge and experience in dealing with civil rights matters and direct action will help to steer the organization until a replacement is named."

Shuttlesworth said he wants to lift the status of the organization by focusing on strengthening and increasing the number of affiliates around the country. He said he also hopes to inspire youths to become more involved in the struggle for civil rights.

"This country seems to have gone backwards since Martin died," Shuttlesworth said. "The SCLC has to again grip the conscience of America like it did during the civil rights movement."

The minister did not rule out using the new position as a pulpit to speak out against injustices in Cincinnati. The city is still reeling from riots in 2001. Racial tensions heated up again two weeks ago after a 41-year-old African-American man died in a videotaped struggle with six police officers.

"I think the country was shocked at the police beating," Shuttlesworth said. "Those images should burn in the consciousness of America.

"I will always teach respect of policemen and support of policemen, but we need to question professionalism that ends up in brutality," he said. "We don't ever want the professionalism or procedures of police to end up in the destruction of people's lives."

When asked if he would support the economic boycott organized by local civil rights activists as his predecessor did, Shuttlesworth responded, "Nobody can support a boycott that lasts forever. Boycotters and non-boycotters have to come together and reason. You can't get to a point where people are refusing to negotiate."

King III, who led the organization for five years, was one of the staunchest national supporters of the Cincinnati boycott. He even offered to contact more than 5,000 groups in the organization's database and ask them not to come to Cincinnati until boycott demands were negotiated.

In January, King III had his father's name removed from an annual breakfast in Cincinnati that commemorates his birthday. He even came to town and spoke at a rally in August to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington.

King III could not be reached for comment Monday.

Shuttlesworth has outlived almost all of his contemporaries and today is one of the last living links to King Jr.'s inner circle. He is best known for fighting to integrate public schools in Birmingham.

He has been jailed more than 35 times, had his house firebombed and was once beaten for trying to enroll his children in an all-white school. While Shuttlesworth travels extensively and is in demand as a speaker nationwide, he doesn't think his added duties will be a burden.

"I believe you ought to wear out rather than rust out," Shuttlesworth said. "I'm not worried about dying. I'm worried about living and doing something while I'm living."

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E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com