Sure, we'll uphold the Constitution

At the swearing-in ceremony in November, during the part where they vowed to uphold the United States Constitution, [Birmingham mayor Art] Hanes, forty-four years old, and [Birmingham public safety commissioner Bull] Connor, sixty-two, had put their left hands behind their backs and crossed their fingers, like fourth-graders neutralizing a fib.

Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001, with 2012 Afterword), p. 234.