What do Fred Phelps of the hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church and the late Bull Connor of the hate-filled Birmingham, Ala. Public Safety Commission have in common?
They were — or are in Phelps’ case — Democrats.
Connor who, among other hate-filled things, turned fire hoses and unleash police dogs on civil rights supporters in 1963 was a Democratic National Committeeman for Alabama in 1960. He began his career as Democrat member of the Alabama House of Representatives where he supported labor union causes.
He ran for governor of the Alabama in 1938 on a platform of “protecting employment practices, law enforcement, segregation and other problems that have been historically classified as states’ rights by the Democratic party.”
Phelps, whose miniscule congregation became nationally notorious for disrupting military funerals, gay-activists rallies and picketing Catholic institutions, finished second in the 1992 Democrat primary for United State Senator for Kansas behind Gloria O’Dell who would lose to Bob Dole.
Phelps’s campaigned for Al Gore’s 1988 presidential run and his son Fred Jr. was a Gore delegate that year.
Fred Phelps Quiz