Sept. 11, 1963 - Eugene (Bull) Connor, former Police Commissioner of Birmingham, Ala., told segregationists in Little Rock, Ark., last night that the battle against integration must be won at the polls and through economic pressures, not through violence. He spoke at a meeting sponsored by the Capital Citizens Council. “You’re not going to win this thing with knives, rocks, shotguns, or dynamite,” Mr. Connor said. “That’s wrong, and you can’t win if you’re wrong. You’ve got to whip them with boycotts and the ballot.” Mr. Connor said he had never apologized for using police dogs and high-powered fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham. “What would have happened if Bull Connor turned the bullets on them?” he asked. “That would have hurt people. Bull Connor doesn’t want to hurt anybody, black, white, yellow, green, or any color.” “But don’t get the regular hoses,” he advised. “They’ll just stand and look at you and take a bath. Get the high-powered ones. They’ll knock a man 60 feet.”
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