David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

we’ve got to do.’)”
Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s
public safety commissioner, was a short,
squat man with enormous ears and a
“bullfrog voice.” He came to
prominence in 1938 when a political
conference was held in downtown
Birmingham with both black and white
delegates. Connor tied a long rope to a
stake in the lawn outside the auditorium,
and ran the rope down the center of the
aisle and insisted—in accordance with
the city’s segregation ordinances—that
black people stay to one side of the line,
and whites to the other. One of the
attendees at the meeting was the
president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.
She was sitting on the “wrong” side and