The Late, Great Viola Liuzzo

With the fiftieth anniversary of the march on Selma, Alabama known as Bloody Sunday just passed, and women's history month currently upon us, I couldn't think of a better way to honor both events than by profiling one of the baddest asses of the Civil Rights movement, and one of my personal heroes.  Viola Liuzzo was a tough bitch who had more courage than I think I have ever personally experienced.  She was moved to the Civil Rights struggle and participated on behalf of her own conscience to help change the United States.  She was murdered for her efforts and before her killers were finally locked up, her name was dragged through the dirt by America's biggest dick-bag, J Edgar Hoover (that is not an official title).  

I chose to profile Viola because I love her story-- it is the story of a woman fighting a battle that was not directly her own because it was, very simply, the right thing to do. 

Also, I cannot get through reading about her without crying just a little-- and I'm not a crier-- consider yourself warned. 
 
Viola Liuzzo, was a wife and mother of five from Pennsylvania living in Detroit at the time of the Selma march in 1965.   Liuzzo was a member of the Michigan chapter of the NAACP and a Unitarian Human Rights activist.  In an article (link at the bottom) Liuzzo's daughter remembered her as a sweet and humble person, as a good mother and wife who called her family daily when she was out of town.   
 
In 1965 the United States was at a turning point-- were we to stay burdened by our past, or were we going to plow ahead in the name of what is right and act like fucking Americans?  Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, was agitating for black voting rights in the south, among other things, because it was at this time that the lives of black men and women were run, almost entirely, by Black Codes, better known as "Jim Crow" laws.  These laws were named for a racially stereotypical black cartoon character and they dictated life below the Mason-Dixon for thousands of black families--  Jim Crow laws are what kept the south segregated in every possible way, and it was these laws that required a ludicrous amount of testing before blacks could become registered voters.  What this testing looked like is well known to history-- blacks asked to guess the number of beans in a jar, the number of bubbles on a bar of soap, name every county judge in the state, etc, etc.  Needless to say, by 1965 less than 2% of voting age blacks were registered to vote.  

There is a point here that cannot be stressed enough, that I think we tend to forget-- people were dying for the basic rights of citizenship.  Emmet Louis Till (age 14), John Earl Reese (16), Lamar Smith, Rev George Lee-- all died while helping black people register to vote-- they were not the first, and they would, unfortunately, not be the last.  This is not an invention of Hollywood, or revisionist historians, or politicians.  This was real life in the southern United States in the 1950s and 1960s-- it's frightening to hear people, for whatever reason, minimize this-- this happened, it was a thing, people. fucking. died.  

John Lewis getting the shit kicked out of him by Alabama Troopers

To protest this disenfranchisement, a massive demonstration was planned for March 7, 1965.  A group of nearly 600 blacks were going to march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama-- a journey of around 50 miles.  When they reached the now notorious Edmund Pettus Bridge outside of Selma, the marchers were met by the Alabama State Troopers.  They were told to turn back as their march was not permitted, when the marchers refused the troopers attacked.   The group was beaten, tear gassed and many were hospitalized.  Leader John Lewis, still a US Congressman today, suffered a fractured skull, for example. 
 
One problem here.  Other than the whole beating a group of peaceful protesters to a bloody pulp due to institutionalized racism thing-- The entire event was televised.  

Needless to say, this did not make the state of Alabama look all that great, not that it was or ever has really looked good to begin with (sorry, Alabama).  People around the country saw a large group including women, children, the elderly, and members of the clergy ruthlessly beaten by police while demonstrating for a basic right of all free peoples.  The march was re-planned for March 21, 1965 and, when that day arrived, thousands-- spurred by what they had seen on TV on March 7-- turned up in Selma to assist in the march.  One of those thousands was wife and mother Viola Liuzzo.  

(Below is a link to a video that shows the footage many of these people, Liuzzo included, would have seen that Sunday afternoon.  Warning:  it's a tough video to watch, also, there's a song dubbed over it and I don't know why.) 

  
Viola's daughter remembers her mother crying while watching the March 7 footage.  Viola's husband stated at the time of the march that she told him "it's everybody's fight" and began immediately packing her bags for a trip to Selma to assist in any way possible with the movement.  This is always the part where I want to say "So this broad just jumps in a car and fucking drives there!", because that's exactly what she did.  

The march on the 21st from Selma to Montgomery was a success-- Dr King and a still bandaged John Lewis led the group of over 3,000 people from nearly all races, religions, and backgrounds all the way to Montgomery.  The march took four days and Dr King gave a riveting speech on the steps of the capitol building at the end of the march. 

Viola Liuzzo marched throughout the entire four days, and endured exhaustion, racial slurs, and threats of violence alongside the others marching for justice and a more American United States. After the march was over she began shuttling people back to Selma in her vehicle. 
 

Assholes.  All of them. 

On one of  her last runs between the two cities, Viola was driving with 19 year old Leroy Moton.  A car containing four Ku Klux Klan members pulled up next to Viola's Oldsmobile.  According to Moton, three of the Klansmen fired into the car, hitting Viola in the head-- she was dead instantly, the car careened off the road and came to rest in a ditch.  The Klansmen then got out to make sure both occupants were dead.  Moton, covered in Viola's blood, played dead and, in doing so, managed to survive. 
 
Viola's family was devastated.  News of the murder spread rapidly.  President Lyndon B Johnson called for an immediate investigation, and Dr King attended Viola's funeral alongside Jimmy Hoffa and Roy Wilkins.  All agreed that Viola's killers needed to be brought to justice. 
 
Enter: J Edgar Hoover.  

This is how you know shit just got real.  It is my firm belief that a good barometer in the 1960s of how history will remember you is whether or not J Edgar Hoover liked you.  Much like the Westboro Baptist Church today, if Hoover hated you, you were probably doing something right. 
 
J Edgar Hoover was not impressed with the civil rights movement and his attempts to discredit and intimidate Dr King extended to secretly wire-tapping his home, and having him followed.  Upon Viola's death, Hoover began planting rumors regarding her activities supporting the Civil Rights movement.  These rumors included that she had abandoned her children, was involved with Moton, etc.  None of them were true, however they did serve to sully Viola's name and cause her husband and five children additional pain through an already excruciating time. 
 
Good job, Hoover.
 

Viola's legacy > J Edgar Hoover's

The men that killed Viola were identified and arrested.  They were Collie Wilkins, Gary Rowe (an FBI informant), William Eaton, and Eugene Thomas.  All were acquitted by all white juries in the state of Alabama.  However, they were eventually indicted (except Rowe who was given immunity) on federal charges and subsequently convicted by an also all white jury and subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison for denying Liuzzo her civil rights-- a law that was passed in response to the KKK during Reconstruction. 
 
Today, Viola is remembered warmly by her family.  There is a park in Detroit named for her, she is the only white woman honored at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and she is named among the 40 civil rights martyrs.  She won the Ford Freedom Humanitarian Award, posthumously, which only one other person at the time of this writing has won (Nelson Mandela, FYI), and her legacy has become one of strength, courage, and an undeniable ability to do what's right.
 
I love the story of Viola Liuzzo, as tragic as it is.  She is a great example of someone who stood up for the best interest of others-- of all the civil rights workers, it was Viola who most easily could have turned her back.  Viola was not southern, she was not black, she was not directly involved in this struggle in any way other than the fact that she knew we could be better than this.  Viola's a great chick and a tough bitch at a time when that didn't get tough bitches very far.  That her story has survived history is important-- she is a true embodiment of America at its best.  

 
Further links:

For the interview NPR did with Viola's daughter:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/08/12/209595935/killed-for-taking-part-in-everybody-s-fight

There is a critically acclaimed documentary on Viola, I have not personally seen it, but it's on the wish-list because I have yet to hear a bad thing about it.  Here is a link to the IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389009/

Various books have been written about Viola including: 

From Selma to Sorrow: the Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo
The Informant: the FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo

Also, I highly recommend the movie Selma, even though it's not a documentary, it is very well done and I actually didn't scream at the screen due to historical inaccuracies.