In late 1958 and the summer of 1959, national news coverage focused on the dangers faced by Black church leaders and others in the civil rights Movement in Birmingham as pro-segregation Whites used increasing violence and intimidation to preserve segregation under Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. Birmingham gained a reputation as the most racist city in the South, and Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth emerged there as both the most harassed and the most fearless Black leader. His direct confrontations with Connor and White extremists over segregated buses, schools, and parks, and over the hiring of Black police officers, made him seem reckless to moderate Black and White leaders, who did not support him. Yet his daring and dramatic style won admiration among many Black residents, and civil rights advocates nationwide regarded him as the Movement's most fearless leader, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. calling him one of the nation's most courageous freedom fighters.