He graduated from (segregated) Greenville High School, and then attended the University of Alabama, receiving a Bachelor of Law degree in 1928.
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decisions in Brown v. Board of Education, secured passage of a pupil placement act designed to maintain segregation.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s April 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" mentioned Boutwell; King had been arrested on Good Friday after Boutwell had vowed to arrest, jail and punish anyone who disturbed the public peace and safety.
[4] Connor in fact met those demonstrations with police dogs and fire hoses, and the movement's leaders and Birmingham businessmen declared a truce on May 10.
He was in office for the forced integration of Birmingham schools by the National Guard and the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four young girls.
His pupil placement act and its popular (among segregationists) freedom of choice provision were declared unconstitutional by federal courts in 1967.