Dogs: From Birmingham to Barack

Walter Gadsden in Birmingham on 3 May
1963, attacked by police dogs during a civil rights protest.   Photo by Bill Hudson/AP.

There has been a lot of coverage of the military dogs who are part of the Inauguration security team. But I have yet to see someone write about the magnitude of the fact that merely a generation ago, official police dogs were used against those of the same race as our next President.  It is truly astonishing.

A patrolman and a police dog go after a black man who swings at the dog with a small knife during racial demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., May 3, 1963.  Police dispersed hundreds of demonstrators and spectators with dogs and water hoses.  Bill Hudson/AP.

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Birmingham, May 3, 1963.  Unknown photographer via Picasa.

Birmingham, May 3, 1963.  Unknown photogapher via Picasa.