By james art 
This is an opinion column
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Today’s guest columnist is James L. Baguette
The story of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham and the brutal response by Birmingham officials has been told many times, and often told well.
But the absence of those accounts is an explanation for why and how Birmingham acquired police dogs, armored cars and firefighters trained in riot control.
In the fall of 1959 The city’s Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor picked up a copy of the Reader’s Digest Magazine and read an article about police dogs in London, England.
When Connor read Reader’s Digest article, The Brown School desegregation and the Montgomery bus boycott were recent events, and like other white supremacists, Conner understood that maintaining racial segregation would require battles in the courts and in the streets.
He needed new weapons, and acquiring dogs would be the first step.
The Baltimore Police Department was a leader in the use and training of dogs, and Conner sent officers there to learn about the program and sent Birmingham’s first K-9 officer, Sergeant MW McBride, and his dog Rebel for training. In the following months, five more officers joined the K-9 Corps.
Dog handlers had to meet specific criteria, including being under 32, physically fit, having an affinity for dogs and must be married (preferably with children). The dogs lived at home with their handlers, and while they were trained to Maul a suspect, the dogs were portrayed to the public as gentle family pets when off-duty.
Connor recognized the public relations value of his new K-9 corps and had his picture taken with the dogs. The handlers demonstrated their dogs for groups of school children and church groups who toured the town hall. They visited schools and Conner made sure that powerful and influential members of the white community saw the dogs in person and in action.
He sent the dogs and their handlers to meetings of Civitan Clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis and other groups. When his schedule allowed, Connor enjoyed accompanying the dog handlers on these visits.
In addition to the police dogs, Connor acknowledged an untapped source of additional fire department personnel. In March 1960 Connor announces that all firefighters in Birmingham will undergo “riot training”.
He told reporters that he was taking this action in response to racial unrest in other cities. In an emergency, Conner said, Birmingham’s 433 firefighters can combine with the city’s 450 police officers to form the largest police force in the South.
For the final step in Connor’s plan, he acquired two armored vehicles (often incorrectly described as “tanks”). In March 1960 two police officers travel to Biloxi, Mississippi to arrange the transportation of World War II military surplus armored cars to Birmingham. Built by the Ford Motor Company between 1943 and 1945, the armored cars had bulletproof glass windows, and with six wheels could reach a top speed of 55 mph.
Each vehicle can carry four employees, including the driver. The vehicles were originally fitted with a machine gun, but these were removed. Each vehicle had eight small openings through which the officers inside could fire rifles. Both vehicles were taken to Birmingham on flatbed trucks and then modified and painted white at the city’s garage.
Conner was confident that he had created an armed force that could crush any civil rights protests. He was wrong because he did not understand the nature of the nonviolent demonstrations he faced.
When Birmingham’s civil rights campaign began on April 3, 1963, it began just as Connor and other white Birminghamites expected, with sit-ins at downtown stores.
Between April 3 and May 8, when movement leaders suspended the protests in response to concessions from white Birmingham businessmen, two civil rights organizations, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, led by Birmingham pastor Fred Shuttlesworth, and the Southern Leadership Conference, led by The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized at least 21 meetings in department stores and other locations; two sessions at the Birmingham City Center Public Library; and at least six cases of picketing outside shops and other places.
Over four consecutive Sundays in April and May, small groups of African Americans took a knee, visiting churches with all-white congregations and demanding to be accepted and allowed to participate in services.
The Birmingham campaign is most associated with large street protests. There were 11 of them, some small in size, but some including hundreds of protesters and emergency farmers.
Over the course of the demonstrations, the dogs were deployed at least six times and unleashed on demonstrators and bystanders four times. Connor first ordered the use of dogs on April 7, when police used them to disperse onlookers watching the Palm Sunday March.
Connor did not order the use of dogs again until May 3, the second day of the phase of the campaign known as the Children’s Crusade. By this stage in the demonstrations, there were too many demonstrators to arrest, so Connor hoped to drive them off the streets.
Far from controlling the demonstrations, the dogs – gathered by crowds of people bombarded by the sounds of sirens, high-pressure hoses and people screaming – introduced an extra level of chaos.
So many people were bitten by the dogs that an African-American doctor whose office was near the site of the demonstrations earned the nickname “Dog Bite Doctor” for treating so many demonstrators and bystanders.
When the dogs performed while being trained, their presence scared some demonstrators, especially children, who ran away. But many demonstrators stood their ground against the dogs. And some black watchers jeered and attacked the dogs.
Fire hose units were deployed over the last six days of the demonstrations, often several times in one day, for a total of 42 times. In some cases hoses were deployed but not in use.
Fire hoses were equally ineffective. There were two purposes behind the use of fire hoses to break up groups of demonstrators and make them flee the scene and to block the advance of the demonstrators and confine them to a specific area.
None of these things work consistently. Water causes pain and injuries, including broken bones. But instead of breaking and running, many demonstrators clung to each other, held on to buildings and other stationary objects, and absorbed the painful impact of the water with their bodies. Others retreated, but often just out of reach of the hoses. Some people danced in the spray and jeered at the firefighters.
Armored cars were less effective than dogs and hoses. There is no definitive record of how many times the cars were deployed, and protesters and bystanders sometimes ran off the street onto the sidewalk when one of the armored cars approached. Loudspeakers on top of the vehicles allowed officers inside to issue orders and call out specific individuals.
But the cars are also seen in photos and film footage of the demonstrations parked along the curb, with small crowds of African-American adults and children — people apparently unfazed by the car’s presence — blankly studying the vehicles from a few feet away.
Dogs, hoses and armored cars were not effective in the way Bull Connor and much of White Birmingham wanted them to be. They did not stop the demonstrations or prevent desegregation.
But their use has been recorded by photographers and film crews, and they have become some of the most impactful and recognizable images of American history, images that resonate with people around the world.
James L. Baggett is a writer and historian. Since 1997 until his retirement in 2023. he served as Archivist of the Birmingham Public Library and Archivist of Birmingham for the City of Birmingham. It can be reached [email protected].
David Sher is the founder and publisher of Coybacktown. He is a past chairman of Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (Rev Birmingham) and City Action Partnership (CAP).
Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. [email protected]