Thanks For The Memories…

“Thanks for the memories
Of faces sprayed with mace
Putting black folks in their place
Of Boss Hog and attacking dogs
All because of race
How #@!! up that was..”

“Thanks for the memories..
Of crosses burning slow
Hooded white men in their robes
Of people dangling from the trees
Their names we’ll never know
How $##@ that was…”

I started to take the song to the next level by accusing folks of shat, but we have to move on. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article called “The Birmingham Effect.” We briefly talked about a man named Theophilus Eugene Connor, also known a Bull Connor and I said he was born in 1897 and how I would like to do an article about him and that era in African American history. So let’s begin.

Eighteen ninety-seven was a real biatch for African Americans. The time was just a generation removed from the Civil War and the millions of really pissed off whites people who lost everything and who blamed it on yours truly. I mean the only thing the North left them was a teeny weeny bit of dignity. That was because former slaves were still down there. However they couldn’t watch all them racist and pissed off white folks who were giving us the stank eye and starting to grow really tall trees by the thousands. In a gesture of good faith, when the war ended, instead of imprisoning folks for treason they let most of the rebel soldiers go home… still… Gen. North: “Gen. South, your men can return home as soon as the lay them weapons down in a pile in front of us..” Gen South: “Men lay your weapons down..” Gen North: “Captain Blackest African American Soldier I Can Find… escort those rebels home..” Captain: “Sgt. Extremely Dark African American, line those hillbillies up behind me so I can march they azz back down to Mississippi and then have me a drink in they saloon with a white woman.” Rebels: “Them nigra’s gonna pay one day…,” and pay we would. In 1877 the Union troop were pulled from the south by President Rutherford B. Hayes in what African Americans call “The Great Betrayal.” In history it is known as the Compromise of 1877. Hayes is to us what Andrew Jackson is to Native Americans. Jackson is responsible for an event called the “Trail Of Tears” in which he forced Native Americans off of lands the government had previously given them under treaty. The forced removal of these people resulted in the deaths of thousands as they were relocated. Anywho, by 1888 the last vestiges of Reconstruction had collapsed and it was time for payback. It officially ended a few days after the 1877 Compromise, but it took time to plan the kind of ass whipping they was reserving for us… about ten years to strip us of power and take our wealth. Rebels: “I told we was gonna get you..”

In 1897 in a place called Selma, Alabama, a son of a b.. I mean a son of the south would be born to Molly and Hugh Connor. His name was Bull Connor and he would one day become the poster boy for Birmingham’s history of bigotry and racial hatred. Selma was name after a poem called the Songs of Selma. The poem is based on Irish mythology and the word Selma means throne. Now some of you might be saying.. “yeah right.. a porcelain throne..,” but please folks, let’s keep it classy. Anywho, Molly and Hugh’s son would be born right in the middle of a once powerful Confederate military stronghold. I know present day Selma doesn’t put you in mind of an important and strategic military base of operations.. but back in the day every other bullet that the rebels fired at Union troops came from Selma! They were hot!! As a matter of fact one of the first iron warships was built in Selma. We sank that shat, but that’s another story. Selma was so important that they built a dirt barrier that circled the city circumference for almost three miles to keep it protected… and the black slaves that live there… well let’s just say the racist took their BS to another level. Rebel: Boy is dat a shadow on the ground? Who told you that you could have a shadow? Slave: Nobody massa.. Issa told it to go away and leave me be, but it keeps following me..” Rebel: Boy did you steal that shadow? You stole that shadow.. didn’t you? Ima have to have a talk wit yo massa and tell him you walking around heh wid a shadow like a white man!!” Slave: “Oh no massa!!” So yeah the slaves there were constantly being put under tremendous stress… they were in a tough spot. Even the Union General, “William Tecumseh Sherman aka ” Fire Starter, ” didn’t take Selma. Sherman is known as the architect of “total war.” He marched his army through the south burning everything that could catch fire and eating everything that could be cut up and put into a frying pan. He took everything from them folks.. Remember “Gone With The Wind”, and the scene where Atlanta was on fire, well that was Sherman roasting marshmallows in the background. They hated him so much that as part of their proposal for peace with the North, they wanted him tried as a war criminal and hung from the highest tree with a rubber rope so they could do it over and over again… okay they didn’t say anything about a rubber rope.. but they did want to see ten toes dangling… anywho.. it wasn’t until a month before the war ended in March of 1865 that Selma was finally taken in the Battle Of Selma.

Bull Connor entered politics in 1934 winning a seat in the Alabama House of Racist.. I mean House of Representatives as a Democrat. Roosevelt had just come into office and was just starting to effect his New Deal which changed the course of African American voting. Before then we still had allegiance to the party of Lincoln who was a Republican. Reminds me of a joke about Dixie democrats back in those days.. “What’s the difference between a southern democrat and a jellyfish?” One is a spineless poisonous blob and the other one lives in the ocean…” Okay I’ll keep my day job… Anywho, during his stint in the House of Racist, ( yeah I might as well keep it real..) he voted to extend the poll tax and against anti sedition bills which stifled union activity. His stance on these issues mainly affected poor white and blacks. He didn’t run for the state seat again, but instead he ran for and won the city office for Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham. Nowadays we call that position the Police Commissioner. A little known fact about Bull is that he was also a radio broadcaster for baseball during his time there. Willie Mays recalls listening to some of his broadcast.

Bull: “And now the pitcher is winding up… and throws a strike right down the middle.. yes folks that ball was faster than a nigra stealing watermelons in broad daylight.. Up next is Brownie White.. White came to this club from the Mississippi Massa’s.. traded because of rumors that he might be passing and that the Massa’s took him to the woods one night… Okay…there’s the pitch… and ohhhh.. that one gets by him… and the count is one strike and no balls… Wait!!! Lefty Jordan is trying to steal third.. Big Moe comes up behind him and tosses the ball to third baseman Willie Mason.. Jordan is caught between a rock and a hard place … Wait.. What!! Ladies and gentleman.. two hooded spectators are on the field.. one is holding a rope and the other one has pull out a pistol… OMG!! OMG!! Boys I said “WILLIE MASON!!” “WILLIE MASON!!” Okay.. it looks like they got the message… its an honest mistake.. and now let take a break to hear from our sponsor.. Everwhite Lumber.. Remember.. when you wear your hood .. use our wood…”
Okay that’s not how it went down.. Actually Willie May’s thought he was doing a good job and said.. “Pretty good announcer, too, although I think he used to get too excited.”

After the Great Betrayal, the citizens of Selma begin setting up Jim Crow segregationist laws… and there you go thinking I was joking about the Captain Blackest African American Soldier I Can Find.. right? Anywho, so yeah they started setting up Jim Crow and enacting laws which would prevent African Americans from voting. Things like poll taxes and literacy test. Poll taxes in the South ranged from about $1.00 to $1.75. So $1.00 back then was worth around $22.00 in today’s money. Looking at it another way, blacks earned about 34% of what whites earned. So for every $1.00 white workers made in 1880, a black worker earned 34 cents. Oh yeah.. that’s a day. Then there were the literacy test..
Racist Clerk: Okay boy.. Spell “We.”
Black voter: W.E
Racist Clerk: Spell “Hang”
Black voter: Uh.. well that’s … “H.A.N.G…”
Racist Clerk: Spell “Black”
Black Voter: Umm… “B.L.A.C.K… ??”
Racist Clerk: Spell “Nigg@rs”
Black Voter: … “N.I.G..” That’s okay.. I’ve changed my mind…
Racist Clerk: Aw that’s too bad… next!!… Spell “We…”
Ain’t nobody ever got to the end of that test….
Okay… it wasn’t exactly like that.. but folks got the message… anywho.. so yeah Selma started doing that type of thing as were most of the southern states. In addition to Jim Crow and the other race opressing measures, Selma was also a hotbed for lynching. In 1892 and 1893 when Bull was just a glass of whiskey on a bar, Willy Webb was arrested in Waynesville for what I might suspect was being disrespectful.. Willie: “Boss do you mind if I walk Miss Lily White…. ” so yeah they arrested him… and he was put in jail in Selma. The story goes that they put him in jail in Selma so that a local mob wouldn’t get to him in Waynesville. Well that didn’t work out and Willie was abducted from the Selma jail and killed. The same thing happened to a black man named Daniel Edwards the next year in 1893.. well not exactly the same thing. You see Daniel was disrespectful and he VIOLATED!! He still had the lipstick on his face when they made an example outta him. He was immediately arrested. Less than an hour later he was hanging from a tree full of bullets holes with rednecks sitting nearby shining their gun.. the smoke still coming out of them… they say it looked like a fog had settled over the city… HE VIOLATED!!!

So I have been talking about Selma and the type of atmosphere that Bull Connor grew up in. Earlier I said that Bull Connor was elected as Public Safety Officer (PSO) in Birmingham. He stayed in that position for 26 years. His years as PSO in Birmingham were not consecutive. His first stint went from 1936 to 1952. During those years the nigras were respectful and knew dey place. He was re-elected in 1956 when dey started walking around with white woman.. Okay, I’m just kidding. The civil right era was just starting to kick into gear around this time. I mean black folks was being disrespectful all over the place… anywho between 1952 and 1956 he put his hat into the Governor’s race. He ran on a platform of law and order and states rights. States rights were the code words for “Butt out,, we will handle our own nigra problems down heh..” He lost to none other than George Wallace. Now George Wallace was a “Four Star Unhooded Racist of the Twelfth Realm with Dangling Nigra and Klan Bow Tie Insignia…” “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” – George C Wallace. On May 15, 1972, he took his racist act to Laurel, Maryland where he was promptly shot in the azz.. okay he wasn’t shot in the azz… but he was shot. After that he became a born again Christian and took all that racist shat back… Wallace died in 1998. Connor lost the Governor race and ran again for PSO in Birmingham where he started his second term which lasted from 1956 to 1963.

Founded in 1871 by a bunch of cotton planters, railroad barons and businessman, Birmingham, Alabama would one day become for all intensive purposes.. part of ground zero for the Civil Right Movement, the other part being Montgomery, Alabama. After Connor began his second term in 1956 as PSO, he quickly returned to the racist tactics the south was known for.. oppressing the black male population because theirs was bigger… you know I was gonna get that in there some kinda way… anywho oppressing the black population. One of our great civil rights pioneers, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was a frequent target of Connor. Around this time the racist in Montgomery were starting to get fed up with them disrespectful nigras and their bus boycott. Meanwhile Shuttlesworth had began to have meetings in Birmingham with other leaders to discuss strategies which could be used there to start plucking some nerves. Connor was like… “Well I’ll be John Brown gosh darn it, if I let a bunch of nigras dictate to the gawd fearing white man and da lily of the womanhood of the superior!! Yahoo!!” Yep he had them arrested.. again and again. In 1960 he filed a lawsuit against the New York Times because they insinuated he was a racist. NYT: Sir is this a picture of you and the Grand Flagel standing in front of a burned out black church shaking hands with your foot on a empty bucket of Popeyes chicken?”.. Okay so the NYT didn’t have a picture of him standing in front of a burned out black church.. but he still lost his case and ended up paying them $40,000. By 1963 the disrespect was everywhere… I mean dey was walking with white women right in from them… Lol!! I know I make a lot of jokes about black men and white woman.. but for real… historically there is no doubt that segregation was primarily put in place to segregate black men from white woman. It’s always been a funny part of our history to me.. anywho In 1963 it all came to a head in Birmingham.

It was the age of Klan bombings. Churches, homes, businesses.. vehicles… nothing was safe from the Klan and their sticks of dynamite. It started in 1956 when Rev. Shuttlesworth’s home was bombed. It damaged his home and the church next door. He and his family were home at the time. Fortunately they only received minor cuts and bruises. But if it’s one thing you can say about a real racist.. they are consistent. There would be four more attacks on his life during the next several years. In one attack in 1957, he and his wife would be brutally beaten and stabbed while enrolling their daughter in a all white school. So the date the Klan first bomb his home was December 25, 1956. The very next day Shuttlesworth was at it again, calling on African Americans to desegregate the buses. Shuttlesworth was a giant! He was involved in every facet of the civil rights movement in the south. When the Klan showed their azz.. Shuttlesworth showed his… Martin Luther King Jr. called him “the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.” The Klan called him a dead (n-word…)
Anyway, that brings us right up to Connor and the 1963 Birmingham Protest. History recalls the event as the Birmingham Riots… and that’s what it was… but we gonna keep it classy and call it a protest because those folks were tired of the Klan’s bullshit and it was time for somebody to take out a can of Whoop Ass TM. Extra Strength. That’s right I said it!! So it all started on May 10, 1963. The city was in negotiations to partially desegregate the the water fountains, lunch counters and fitting rooms in the stores and to release people who had been arrested in the demonstrations. Martin Luther King Jr, Shuttlesworth, Rev A.D King ( brother of MLK) and A.G Gaskins had arranged for the negotiations. A.G Gaskins was the owner of a local motel. During a press event at the motel, Shuttlesworth had read a portion of the agreement they had made with the city after which A. D King said, “It is a great victory… now don’t you mfers make me do this again or next time I might have to kick a little bit of it…” Okay he didn’t say don’t make me come back.. but Conner and the rest of the racist only heard that last part. They said they wasn’t going for it and wasn’t going to enforce it. Now mind you, the citizens of Birmingham had been protesting for a while by now and Connor had already showed his…

Part of MLK’s Birmingham Campaign, Shuttlesworth, A.D King and A.G Gaskins were wrapping it up. Martin Luther King Jr. had already left for Atlanta. That same day May 11, 1963, the Klan held a rally in  Bessemer, Alabama, telling his followers not to fall for those nigra tricks or their atheist ministers shenanigans.. these are my words.. they way the Klan put it, I would be thrown off social media… I might even be arrested… anywho, the crowd was reportedly dejected and had already accepted the inevitable march toward desegregation. The rally ended at 10:30 pm. Normally Klan rallies last until they find a disrespectful one and bring him back to the rally for a whooping.. So that night a number of Birmingham police departed the parking lot of the Holy Family Hospital and headed toward the home of Martin Luther King’s brother, A. D. King. Some police traveled in an unmarked car. One of them put a package on King’s porch and another one threw a small package on the sidewalk, where it exploded knocking over a man named Roosevelt Tatum. Tatum got up and moved toward the front of the house.. where BOOM!! another blast went off, destroying the front of the house. He rush around back to find A.D king and his family escaping through the back door. Tatum told him he saw the police place the bombs and King called the FBI. An hour later BOOM!! another bomb went off. This time at the Gaston motel near the room where Martin Luther King Jr and the Birmingham Committee had met earlier. When word got out about the bombing, it hit the fan. People were already angry thinking that it was Klan on the police department that carried out the bombing. Add to the fact that there was a lot of gin and juice going around because people were celebrating the agreement… and folks was tore up.. well you got a perfect storm and you can almost bet cans of Whoop Ass TM were gonna come out… and they did. They put 18,000 soldiers mounted on horseback on standby and reserved another 21,000 if the shat got real… and people started shooting.. I mean black folks was determined to burn it up…. every last bit of it!!! They didn’t burn their own neighborhood like we did in the sixties up north.. They were in downtown Birmingham burning white businesses and homes.. The riots only lasted three hours but the message was clear… If you don’t know.. you bedda ask somebody!! The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover called the bombings a red flag operation perpetrated by the Black Muslims… As for Connor he ended his tenure as PSO sometime that year. In 1964 he returned to government service as a Public Service Commissioner and in 1966 he suffered a stroke which left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He ran for the last time in 1968… not for PSO, but for Public Service Commissioner.. he lost. On February 26, 1973, Theophilus Eugene Connor (Bull) had another stroke which left him unconscious. He would never regain consciousness again. He died a few weeks later. There is no mention of where or when he was buried, ( I wonder why…) but anyway, thank the Lord he lived long enough to see Dixie fall and in 1966 witness one Leroy Stover.. or should I say Officer Stover be hired as the first black police officer in Birmingham. He achieved the rank of Deputy Chief in his 32 years of service and in 2015 the Birmingham Police Department West Precinct office at Five Points West was dedicated in Stover’s honor.

Thanks for reading ©Hill1News