The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy coordinated civil rights marches in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. This is a press conference at the A.G. Gaston Hotel. (File/The Birmingham News)

After the success of "Selma," a biographical movie about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle for voting rights in that Alabama town, is the world now ready for a biopic about the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the civil rights struggle in Birmingham?

"It cracks the door open for a movie that's about Shuttlesworth," said Andrew Manis, author of the 1999 Shuttlesworth biography, "A Fire You Can't Put Out." One producer who looked at the possibility of a movie based on Shuttlesworth wanted to call it "Birmingham." Manis insists that his book title is better.

Shuttlesworth's years of battling segregationist public safety commissioner Bull Connor would make a movie full of drama, Manis said.

"One that's on the order of 'Selma,' focused not just on Birmingham, but focused on Fred's life, a close adaptation of what I did in the book," Manis said. "Mostly what I have in mind is mostly a personal contest between Shuttlesworth and Connor. Those seven years of parry and thrust between Bull and Fred, that's the most drama anywhere in the civil rights movement."

Shuttlesworth was a lively country-style preacher, rough around the edges, who risked his life routinely challenging Birmingham's segregation laws - riding in the white section of segregated city buses and enrolling his children at an all-white school. He once sued Connor and acted as his own lawyer just so he could question Connor as a witness.

Shuttlesworth was pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Collegeville from 1953-61, and returned frequently from Cincinnati during Birmingham's 1963 civil rights marches.

Shuttlesworth was brutally beaten by a mob, sprayed with city fire hoses, arrested by police 35 times and also blown out of his bed by a Ku Klux Klan bomb during his struggle against segregation in Birmingham. But he frequently declared he did not fear death.

Manis has started a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.com with a goal of raising $30,000 to pay a screenwriter to get the ball rolling on a movie about Shuttlesworth.

"The charisma and sense of humor of Fred would make it an appealing role," said Manis, an associate professor of history at Middle Georgia State College. "He's a non-violent warrior who laughs at his enemy because he's convinced sooner or later he's going to win."

Manis wishes that Shuttlesworth had been included in the movie "Selma," which has grossed about

$43,578,000

, according to

.

Shuttlesworth took part in many of the demonstrations in Selma and preached a counterpoint sermon on non-violence after Malcolm X spoke at Brown Chapel AME Church, Manis said.

"He was introduced by Fred Shuttlesworth," Manis said. "Fred got up and gave a speech where he disagreed with the theology of Malcolm X."

Manis also noted that Birmingham's segregationist Bull Connor was mentioned in "Selma," but not the minister who tormented him the most - Shuttlesworth.

"In the strategy sessions, when you mention Bull Connor several times, but you don't mention Fred Shuttlesworth, you need another movie," Manis said.