Police Presence

Police Presence. March Route to Government. Birmingham Blacks had no love for police, who often harassed and brutalized them rather than protect them from bombings and violence. Some policemen were suspected Ku Klux Klan members or sympathizers. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor sent police officers to spy on mass meetings at civil rights churches. "Project C" organizers counted on "Bull” and his police to brutally enforce segregation laws. "Project C” (C for “Confrontation") was a series of non-violent actions that included marches, boycotts, sit-ins and mass jailings-often done with prayer and freedom songs. Organizers believed images of non- violent protestors confronting police would spark moral outrage and support for their cause., Paired marker , May 1963 , Helmeted police stand ready in Kelly Ingram Park outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, one of many strategic hubs from which "Project C" organizers launched marches. Police try to keep marchers away from City Hall, usually stopping them at 17th Street. White police often considered this street to be the great dividing line between them and Black protesters advancing to government sites downtown., "No man can make us hate, and no man can make us afraid." , Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth , In his "New Negro Church" speech, May 17, 1957, Lesson A2: Find other examples of segregation laws and study their impact on people.