Police Presence

In Birmingham, many Black residents distrusted police who often harassed and brutalized them instead of protecting them from bombings and violence, and some policemen were suspected of being Ku Klux Klan members or sympathizers. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor sent officers to spy on mass meetings at civil rights churches, and Project C organizers counted on him and his police to brutally enforce segregation laws. Project C, with the C standing for Confrontation, used nonviolent actions including marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and mass jailings, often accompanied by prayer and freedom songs. Organizers believed that images of nonviolent protesters confronting police would stir moral outrage and build support for their cause. In May 1963, helmeted police stood ready in Kelly Ingram Park outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, one of several strategic hubs from which Project C organizers launched marches. Police tried to keep marchers away from City Hall, usually stopping them at 17th Street, which white police often saw as the dividing line between themselves and Black protesters advancing toward government sites downtown.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States