Minneapolis spokesman., 1963-05-23
Bull" Connor Makes
His Lost Sfond In
Streets Of Birminqhonl
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SrTeeTS Vt blTmIn9n0m
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source of intelligence about racists,
to provide a speaker who would
brief the police chiefs on the types
they must look for if they were to
avert trouble in advance.
The speaker arrived, and he pro-
ceeded to read list of the South's
most notorious racists." On the
list was Eugene Connor. There was
a mild chuckle in the audience, and
there on the front row Police Com
missioner Bull Connor aclSnow-
lodged the moment with a smile Of
his own.
Bull Connor's attitude might be
easy to explain away as the ma
tural heritage Of a lifelong cop.
But Bull Connor was never a cop
not the beat-pounding, crook
catching type, at any rate. He has
been Police Commissioner Of Birm-
ingham for "a years, but he didn't
get there through the ranks.
Back in the pre-radio days Eu-
gene Connor was the man who, by
megaphone, broadcast telegraphic
reports of the ball games in down.
town Birmingham. That's where
he acquired his nickname. No one,
the old-timers recall, could ever
below Hes out" like Bun Con-
nor.
When radio came in, so did Bull,
as the towns ace sports broad
caster. Then he decided to run for
the state Legislature. In the one
party South the voter often has to
choose among four, five or seven
candidates, with no party distinc-
ton. Often the man with the most
familiar name wins. Everyone
knew Bull Connor, and so he went
to Montgomery.
There he met James M. Simpson,
the state Senator from Birming-
ham. Simpson recognized great pol
itical possibilities in Bull Connor,
and urged him to return to the
city to run for Police Commission
er. The Bull could run all Birming-
ham after that.
To this day Simpson, no longer
holding political office, remains
one of the brains behind Bull Con-
nor, the ex-radio sportscaster who,
except for one four year period,
has held his office for "a years.
That four-year hiatus was the
result Of one of the bluenose laws
that Bull loves so dearly and of a
spat with one of his detectives.
The detective got word one after
noon that he was about to be fired.
That evening he marched up to the
Tutwiler Hotel with a reporter in
tow and raided a room on the sew
enth floor. Inside were Bull Con-
nor and his secretary. They were
both fully clothed, but Bull had
pushed through a city ordinance
making it a crime for a man and a
woman (other than husband and
wife, or father and daughter) to
be in locked room unchaperoned.
Bull was charged with violation of
his own law.
The law was declared unconsti-
tutional before the case was over,
but Bull decided it was polite to
sit out the 1952-1956 term of office.
Once he had done his time, how
ever, he ran again, and won.
The Birmingham government
has been composed of three Com
missioners - the Mayor, the pub
lie Works Commissioner and the
Police Commissioner. Actually
Bull, through sheer force of per-
sonality, has almost always run
not only his own job but the other
two as well.
He knows all the technicalities.
For example, the law says the Po-
lice Commissioner can appoint to
temporary terms certain judges.
Bull wanted his man on the bench
in Night Court. 1t has been simple.
He has appointed the same man to
the job every week for the last six
years.
In recent years, the upper strata
Of Birmingham began to weary Of
Bull. For one thing, he was giving
a bad image Of the city. Not only
were his cops tough on Negroes,
they could be pretty harsh on
whites, too and the whites had
no NAACP to protest on their be-
half. Bull chose the peak Of the
Christmas shopping season to In
stall one-way streets and no-park-
ing areas downtown, and unlxnow-
ing rural visitors returned from
the stores with their arms laden
with purchases and found their
cars towed away to the pound;
they did their Christmas shopping
elsewhere the following year. Then
the newspapers began Pumping