Bull Connor threw our father in jail

Ann Beard Grundy

Age 18 in 1963

Ann’s mother protected her children from learning the real reason their father was absent.

In this segment of an expansive oral history she gave in October 2025, Ann Beard Grundy speaks of the time, when she was 4 years old, that Bull Connor threw her father in jail for refusing to cancel a planned meeting of the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Because their mother protected her children from learning where their father was during this absence, it wasn’t until Ann was an adult that she heard from her older brother about what really happened and read about the court case on this incident, Taylor v. City of Birmingham.

This segment is part of a broad oral history interview that Ann Beard Grundy offered for Kids in Birmingham 1963 and the Bending the Arc Project in October 2025.