Bull Connor

Theophilus Eugene " Bull" Connor ( born July 11, 1897 in Selma, Alabama, † March 10, 1973 in Birmingham, Alabama ) was an American politician and civil servant. He became famous mainly because of his strict enforcement of racial segregation and its use of violence against peaceful protesters the civil rights movement in the early 1960s in Birmingham (Alabama ).

Connor worked as a telegraph operator, retailers and broadcasters. From 1935 to 1937 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Alabama for the Democratic Party. From 1937 to 1953 he held the office of Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham, a high municipal administration office at the level directly below the mayor. Thus he had the power of governance among other things, police, fire, education and health care. 1953 Connor waived because of his involvement in a corruption scandal and an alleged extramarital affair on a bid again, but returned in 1957 back to the office. He was a delegate for a total of five Democratic National Conventions (1948, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968). At the convention of 1948, he was among those delegates from the southern states, which left the meeting in protest against the integrative racial policies of President Harry S. Truman and the Dixiecrats founded. 1950, 1954 and 1962, Connor competed unsuccessfully for nomination as governor of Alabama.

Although not itself a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Bull Connor revealed as police chief of Birmingham violent actions of the Klan. In 1961, he prevented the intervention of the police, as clan members, a group of civil rights activists beat up at a bus stop. The urban parks he had chosen, because in his view, a strict segregation of park visitors could not be sufficiently performed here. Through such actions, and the poor image of the city in the media as the hearth of racial conflict Connor lost the support of even with a majority of the white inhabitants. In 1962, the citizens gave in a referendum a new city constitution. Accordingly, the offices of the three Commissioners should be abolished and replaced by a nine -member City Council. On 2 April 1963 Connor ran for the office of mayor, but was defeated by Albert Boutwell. In early May he had to proceed against peaceful demonstrators of the civil rights movement with brutal force and detain about 1,000 people, including Martin Luther King. On May 23, finally had to leave his office abgeschafftes Connor.

From 1964 until his death in Bull Connor was chairman of the body responsible for public utilities in the State of Alabama Public Service Commission. At the age of 75 years he died of a stroke.