Bull Connor FBI Files
Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor was born on July 11, 1897 in Selma, Alabama. In the 1960's he was the Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama. In this position he countered civil rights protest actions with fire hoses, police dogs, and even a small tank against protest marchers. His aggressive tactics lead to him becoming a symbol of hard-line Southern racism.
Connor efforts backfired when the spectacle of the brutality being broadcast on national television served as one of the catalysts for major social and legal change in the South and helped in large measure to assure the passage by the United States Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
