“Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor” was Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety in 1961 when the Freedom Riders came to town. He was known as an ultra-segregationist with close ties to the KKK. Connor encouraged the violence that met the CORE Freedom Riders at the Birmingham Trailways Bus station by promising local Klansmen that, ‘He would see to it that 15 or 20 minutes would elapse before the police arrived.'” Connor authorized use of “high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs” “to control thousands of nonviolent protesters, including children.” (From PBS’ Freedom Riders.)”