Eugene “Bull” Connor plays a minor role in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” although he will become King’s committed adversary in the weeks after the composition of his letter. Connor’s violent tactics, which included the use of dogs and fire hoses against Black Americans, would sway national opinion in favor of the protestors. But, in King’s text, Connor is only depicted as a failed mayoral candidate and committed segregationist. King notes his critics find Conner a laudable figure. The challenge “Letter from Birmingham Jail” presents is that King’s main antagonists in the text are flawed ideologies, not people. King explicitly states that people like Connor who violently embrace hate and who are adamant in their segregationist positions, are less dangerous to the movement for equal rights than are the moderates willing to accept injustice in the name of order.