Rev. Bevel gave Birmingham children a chance to play important roles in the struggle for equality, turning hundreds of recruits into an effective non-violent army that Project C sent into the retail district. Images of young foot soldiers under attack by Birmingham public safety officials turned worldwide public opinion against Southern racism as practiced by Bull Connor and like-minded Whites, leading people throughout the world to sympathize with African Americans and their struggle for equality. On May 1, 1963, to stop hundreds of young protestors from reaching the retail district, Bull Connor ordered Birmingham firefighters to unleash powerful streams of water from high-pressure hoses into crowds of children. From a distance of 100 feet, these hoses, equipped with special nozzles, could knock bricks loose from buildings, and one teenage girl later recalled that the force of the water pinned her and other children to the wall of a local business, leaving them barely able to move under the pressure and pain. The violence against non-violent schoolchildren helped turn the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations into an international protest movement.