Rev. Shuttlesworth's Home Bombed

On December 25th, 1956, the Birmingham, Alabama, home of civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. This instance of violence was triggered a week earlier, when bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, was ruled illegal. Shuttlesworth called for the black community in Birmingham to desegregate city buses beginning December 26. He proceeded as planned on December 26 protest rides.