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Jailbirds ingly surrendered to Birmingham police officials in the lobby of the A. G. Gaston Building. Although Ruby and the children worried about his spending time in Bull Connor's jail, Fred, once his pique with his lawyers had passed, cheerfully shared a cell with his friend Phifer. They sang and prayed together and preached to many of their fellow inmates, some of whom were converted by their impromptu sermons. The preachers' spirits were lifted as well by the celebrity status they enjoyed while in jail. Fellow prisoners treated them as special, offering them sugar for their coffee and presenting other tokens of respect. The preachers regaled a constant stream of visitors with stories of their imprisonment and pious homilies of how God was keeping them safe in the "Bull's den" or would soon deliver them altogether. ACMHR colleagues Georgia Price, Lola Hendricks, and Fred's cousin Julia Rainge helped Shuttlesworth take care of movement and churchly business by placing long distance calls. They also kept Ruby and the family posted on his condition and the latest happenings in Birmingham .B4 Outside Fred's cell, activities became more frenetic as King and his SCLC staff stepped in to help speed his release. Wyatt Walker called on New York attorney William Kunstler to fly to Birmingham to assist Shuttlesworth's attorneys Arthur Shores and Orzell Billingsley, who applied for a federal writ of habeas corpus. A hearing before Judge Grooms, who would determine whether Shuttl~sworth had been lawfully detained, was scheduled for Wednesday, February 2, eight days after he had been jailed. King again appealed to Robert Kennedy on Shuttlesworth's behalf, writing, "The Reverend Mr. Shuttlesworth does not shrink from jail-going, but I have grave fears for his safety in the light of the recent rash of bombings and general bitterness directed toward this courageous non-violent leader. It is clear that hundreds of segregationists, in and out of jail, would like nothing better than to do bodily harm to the Rev. Mr. Shuttlesworth. We respectfully request immediate surveillance by your office of this situation as a precautionary measure to insure his safety." King also wrote letters to most of his clergy friends, asking them to take up offerings in the church services to help defray legal expenses.BS In still another effort of support for Shuttlesworth, King and the SCLC joined with the ACMHR and the Cincinnati Ministers Conference to supply preachers for Shuttlesworth's and Phifer's pulpits while they were in jail. Thus Revelation Baptist Church enjoyed a stellar lineup of pulpiteers, including Wyatt T. Walker, C. K. Steele of Tallahassee, Kelly Miller Smith of Nashville, Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, and King himself. If the incarceration continued, Fred's Birming293 Jailbi.rds ham colleagues Edward Gardner, Nelson H. Smith Jr., and J. c. Parker would fill in, followed by Cincinnati ministers 1. V. Booth, Otis Moss, and T. 1. Lane. In addition, the Sunday school superintendent at Revelation spearheaded a campaign that collected six hundred lettergrams and night letters to be forwarded to the U.S. attorney general asking for intervention into the matter.86 The night after Shuttlesworth and Phifer were jailed, a mass meeting was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church under the auspices of A. G. Gaston's ad hoc organization. Many ACMHR followers attended the meeting, in part to gauge the resolve of the middle class to support their leader. Although skeptical, the ACMHR faithful left relatively pleased when the body passed a resolution "giving unanimous endorsement to the efforts and sacrifices and spirit of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. James Phifer, and we pledge to Rev. Shuttlesworth our prayers, our support, and our services."87 The following Monday night, at their regularly scheduled meeting, ACMHR members heard leaders read twenty telegrams of support for Shuttlesworth, including one from former Alabama governor James A. "Big Jim" Folsom, a liberal on race issues who was then running for another term. Another telegram, receiving a much less enthusiastic response, came from Burke Marshall. It expressed the attorney general's sympathy in the matter but said that any action on Shuttlesworth's behalf would have to come from local courts. As the meeting concluded, treasurer Bill Shortridge admonished the congregation to send letters of encouragement and support to Shuttlesworth and Phifer in care of the city jail. Soon, however, Shuttlesworth and Phifer complained through Shortridge to the FBI special agent in charge of Birmingham that their mail was...

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