Bull Connor

Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor (July 11, 1897 – March 10, 1973) was an American politician who was Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. A lifelong member of the Democratic Party, he strongly opposed the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Under the city commission government, Connor had responsibility for administrative oversight of the Birmingham Fire Department and the Birmingham Police Department, which also had their own chiefs. As a white supremacist, Bull Connor enforced legal racial segregation and denied civil rights to Black citizens, especially during 1963's Birmingham campaign led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He is well known for directing the use of fire hoses and police attack dogs against protestors, including against children and student civil rights activists. National media broadcast these tactics on television, horrifying much of the world. The outrages served as catalysts for major social and legal change in the Southern United States and contributed to passage by the United States Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.