By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – A majority of Birmingham Airport Authority members favor renaming Birmingham International Airport to honor the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a former civil rights leader.
The airport authority plans to vote on the change next month. Five of seven board members said during a meeting Wednesday that they want to rename Alabama's largest airport. The new name would be Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport.
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford suggested the change during a city council meeting Tuesday.
Shuttlesworth, who has been recovering from a stroke, was beaten and had his home bombed while leading civil rights protests in Birmingham in the 1950s and early 1960s. He later moved to Cincinnati, where he was pastor of a church until 2006.