Difference between revisions of "Bull Connor"
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In his early career, Connor worked as a reporter for sports on Birmingham radio,<ref name=politicalgraveyard/> where his amusement acquired his later-to-be-infamous nickname as a result of nearly sharing a name with the cartoon character of a local newspaper, B. U. L. Connor.<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> Connor also worked in sales as well as a telegraph operation, following in the footsteps of his father. | In his early career, Connor worked as a reporter for sports on Birmingham radio,<ref name=politicalgraveyard/> where his amusement acquired his later-to-be-infamous nickname as a result of nearly sharing a name with the cartoon character of a local newspaper, B. U. L. Connor.<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> Connor also worked in sales as well as a telegraph operation, following in the footsteps of his father. | ||
| − | ==Political career== | + | ==Political career: New Deal era to Truman presidency== |
Connor ran for Alabama House of Representatives in 1934, lazily refraining from campaigning though benefited from recognition as a radio personality<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> and won a seat.<ref name=politicalgraveyard/> During his tenure in the lower body of the state legislature, Connor compiled a Southern progressive record opposing pay raises, tax increases, anti-sedition legislation (designed to derail [[labor union]] interests), and in support of poll tax reform popular among the populist white working class.<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> | Connor ran for Alabama House of Representatives in 1934, lazily refraining from campaigning though benefited from recognition as a radio personality<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> and won a seat.<ref name=politicalgraveyard/> During his tenure in the lower body of the state legislature, Connor compiled a Southern progressive record opposing pay raises, tax increases, anti-sedition legislation (designed to derail [[labor union]] interests), and in support of poll tax reform popular among the populist white working class.<ref name=alencyclopediabio/> | ||
Revision as of 01:41, October 4, 2023
| T. Eugene “Bull” Connor | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Former President of the Alabama Public Service Commission From: January 18, 1965 – January 17, 1972 | |||
| Predecessor | Jack Owen | ||
| Successor | Kenneth Hammond | ||
| Former Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety From: 1957–1963 | |||
| Predecessor | Robert Lindbergh | ||
| Successor | (none, position abolished) | ||
| Former Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety From: 1937–1954 | |||
| Predecessor | W. O. Downs | ||
| Successor | Robert Lindbergh | ||
| Former State Representative from Alabama From: 1935–1937 | |||
| Predecessor | ??? | ||
| Successor | ??? | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Democrat | ||
| Spouse(s) | Beara Levens | ||
Theophilus Eugene Connor (July 11, 1897 – March 10, 1973[1]), known as T. Eugene Connor or more commonly Bull Connor, was a prominent left-wing[2] Democratic Party leader in Alabama known for his militant white supremacism consistent with the state's Progressive tradition.
Connor known for his extremist reprisals against peaceful civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, where his shameful actions epitomized the racial problems that long existed in the South. The "public safety" commissioner's card-carrying, partisan allegiance with violent Democratic segregationists is infamously remembered to this day for his public manifestation of unrestrained, animalistic savagery unleashed upon activists in the civil rights movement.
Early life and background
Theophilus Eugene Connor was born on July 11, 1897, in Selma, Alabama, to Hugh King Connor and the former Molly Godwin.[2] Due to his father's occupation as a telegraph operator and train dispatcher, the family traveled frequently and lived in several different states during Eugene's formative years. While living in Atlanta, Georgia, while the young Connor was eight years old, his mother died from pneumonia.[2]
Due to his father's continued traveling, Connor resided with relatives in the cities of Birmingham and Plantersville, where he attended schools though failed to graduate.[2] He married the former Beara Levens in 1920, with whom he had a daughter.
In his early career, Connor worked as a reporter for sports on Birmingham radio,[1] where his amusement acquired his later-to-be-infamous nickname as a result of nearly sharing a name with the cartoon character of a local newspaper, B. U. L. Connor.[2] Connor also worked in sales as well as a telegraph operation, following in the footsteps of his father.
Political career: New Deal era to Truman presidency
Connor ran for Alabama House of Representatives in 1934, lazily refraining from campaigning though benefited from recognition as a radio personality[2] and won a seat.[1] During his tenure in the lower body of the state legislature, Connor compiled a Southern progressive record opposing pay raises, tax increases, anti-sedition legislation (designed to derail labor union interests), and in support of poll tax reform popular among the populist white working class.[2]
In 1937, he was elected Commissioner of Public Safety of Birmingham, Alabama,[2] and served in the position throughout the span of three decades. Affiliated with the business hierarchy, Connor favored low taxes and limited government in accordance with Southern Jeffersonian ideals, though maintained his appeals to the working-class base as an unconditional segregationist and opponent of crime.[2]
Even by the early 1940s, when most segregationist Southern Democrats sharply broke with FDR, Connor referred to him as "[having] been a fine president" despite breaking with the national Administration over the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC).[3]
Connor supports the Dixiecrat revolt, 1948
During the primaries for the 1948 U.S. presidential election, Connor joined adamant segregationists and race-baiters alike in supporting the insurgent third-party States' Rights Democratic Party (SRP) bid against the regular national Democrats aligning behind President Harry Truman, who recently advocated for and enacted civil rights policies to the disillusionment of many Southern Democrats.[2]
The Alabama Democratic Party, like its counterparts in other Deep South states, was split. At the Democratic National Convention, Connor was instrumental in leading the walkout of Alabama "Dixiecrats" who opposed Truman and supported the SRP's nominee, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond.[2]
Extramarital affair
On December 26, 1951, the day following Christmas, Connor was arrested in a hotel room for adultery with Christian Brown, his secretary.[1] Although fined, convicted, and sentenced to prison, the verdict was overturned the following year. However, as a result of the affair, Connor declined to seek reelection to another commissioner term in 1953, only voted back to his post four years later.[2]
Tirade against civil rights activists
Although Connor was not a recorded member of the third incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, he directly enabled Klan violence in Alabama, refusing to take actions against Klansmen responsible for bombings.[2] When Klansmen viciously assaulted the Freedom Riders, Connor ordered Birmingham city police to refrain from restoring order.
In the early 1960s, Connor directed the use of fire hoses and police dogs against peaceful civil rights activists, including against children supporting the protests.[4] National media broadcast these tactics on television, horrifying much of the world; the outrages served as catalysts for congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The diehard flank of Southern segregationist leaders who closed city parks and public schools to prevent racial integration eventually alienated their support from many Southern whites. Connor's handling of Birmingham reached such levels of unpopularity by 1962 to the point of the city's white business leaders and majority population voting for a reform of the government to water down the longtime commissioner's power.[2]
Death and legacy
Connor died on March 10, 1973, in Birmingham, and is interred at Elmwood Cemetery.[1]
Modern left-wing propagandists occasionally engage in spurious designation Connor as a "right-winger"/"conservative," entirely ignoring his history of supporting the New Deal and various economic progressive reforms. The liberal media outlet Salon, blaming "conservatives" for racism, modified a quote by Connor to create a false equivalence between the peaceful, patriotic civil rights activism of the 1960s and contemporary neo-Marxist woke ideology.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Index to Politicians: Connor. The Political Graveyard. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Baggett, James L. (March 9, 2007). Eugene "Bull" Connor. Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
- ↑ Gerstle, Gary; Lichtenstein, Nelson; O'Connor, Alice (November 29, 2019). Beyond the New Deal Order: U.S. Politics from the Great Depression to the Great Recession, p. 47. Google Books. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
- ↑ Meet the Players: Other Figures. PBS. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
- ↑ Elfenbein, Caleb (August 6, 2023). The past isn't dead: Teaching the truth about America's racial history is critical. Salon. Retrieved October 3, 2023.