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Bull Connor’s Repression

Back in the day on May 3rd, 1963, a civil rights demonstration during the Birmingham Campaign was violently repressed in Alabama. The activist effort of the Southern Christian Leadership sought to expose and challenge the segregationist system of the southern city. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and fellow organizers launched “Project C” for ‘confrontation,’ as a means of applying direct action and economic pressure in order to achieve their objectives. On May 2nd, young students were recruited for a march on downtown Birmingham before being arrested in the hundreds. Undeterred, the youth returned once more when notorious Public Safety Commissioner T. Eugene “Bull” Conner mercilessly ordered a change in police tactics. High-pressured fire hoses and police dogs were turned loose on the demonstrators. Images in the media of the repression caused an international outrage and provoked federal intervention.

Dr. King reassured his followers in the aftermath by saying, “Don’t worry about your children who are in jail. The eyes of the world are on Birmingham. We’re going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses. We’ve gone too far to turn back.”

For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our people’s history!