On April 2, 1963, segregationist Eugene “Bull” Connor refused to leave office after losing the mayoral election in Birmingham, Alabama. Claiming that the newly elected mayor and city council did not have executive authority, he ordered the violent suppression of civil rights protests and the mass arrests of nonviolent demonstrators.

Connor had served six terms on the three-person Birmingham City Commission, the executive body of the city, since 1937. In his 1963 mayoral campaign, he ran on an aggressive segregationist platform, vowing to keep city pools and playgrounds closed rather than allow Black people entry and to flatly defy federal laws and court orders mandating integration.

Connor lost the mayoral race to former Alabama Lt. Gov. Albert Boutwell by over 7,000 votes, a result Connor attributed to “The Negro vote.” Rather than allow Boutwell to take office on April 2, Connor filed a lawsuit arguing he and the other commissioners could not be removed until 1965 and asserting their continued authority even as Boutwell began his term as the lawfully elected mayor. The stand-off with the two competing governments continued for more than six weeks.

Nonviolent protests by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference against racial segregation and Connor’s platform began the next day, on April 3. Connor responded by ordering the police to arrest and disperse demonstrators with attack dogs. More than 100 people were arrested that week.

Weeks later, on May 2, while still refusing to leave office, Connor ordered the mass arrest of hundreds of the more than 1,000 children who had gathered near the 16th Street Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham as part of the Children’s Campaign against segregation. The next day, police under Connor’s authority deployed attack dogs and high-pressure fire hoses against the children, some as young as seven.

Connor eventually stepped down on May 23, 1963, after the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously ruled against him and in favor of Mayor Boutwell. After leaving office, he issued a statement, saying, “I don't believe I owe the taxpayers anything.”