Sad 50th Anniversary for a Fallen Heroine: Viola Liuzzo (died March 25, 1965)

[KingCharlemagne]

Last edited Wed Mar 25, 2015, 10:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Folks and comrades:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of a civil rights heroine: Viola Liuzzo. She was shot to death by a group of Alabama Klansmen this day in 1965, while driving back from the airport in Montgomery, AL. She had traveled from Detroit to Selma in response to the inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the events of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The KKK assassins were initially acquitted by an all-white jury in the state trial but eventually convicted in federal court on civil rights charges.

Liuzzo's story is fascinating and so sad. The Wiki article gives a good introduction to Liuzzo's life and heroism and briefly discusses the FBI's less-than-stellar response. (One of the four KKK members on the hit squad was a long-standing FBI informant.)

The world is a better place because of Liuzzo's sacrifice.

RIP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Liuzzo

[KingCharlemagne]

1. Giving this one kick to remember and honor a fallen hero(ine). - nt

[irisblue]

2. K&R she deserves to be remembered

[KamaAina]

3. One of Unitarian Universalism's few martyrs.

Another is Dr. James Reeb, who was also killed during the early days of the civil rights movement. We are always at our best (I say "we" loosely because I've lapsed. From UU!) when fighting for social justice; a more recent example is marriage equality.

[KingCharlemagne]

5. When I read about Liuzzo and Reeb, I am reminded of Lincoln's

peroration in the Gettysburg Address:

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Thanks for your annotation. I had heard Reeb's name before, but did not realize he was also a martyr.

[Oilwellian]

4. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover initiated a campaign to discredit Liuzzo

in the eyes of the public. Hoover insinuated to President Johnson that Liuzzo was a drug addict, that she had sex with Moton, and that her husband was involved with organized crime. The FBI leaked the allegations to the media, and several newspapers repeated the claims. Liuzzo's husband attempted to defend his wife's reputation; his daughter Penny states that the disinformation campaign "took the life right out of him .. he started drinking a lot." Autopsy testing in 1965 showed no traces of drugs in Liuzzo's system, and that she had not had sex recently at the time of death. The FBI's role in the smear campaign was uncovered in 1978 when Liuzzo's children obtained case documents from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act.

Why oh why would the FBI want to discredit this woman?

[KingCharlemagne]

6. Not sure whether you are being sarcastic, but if not, the answer is that

one of the four KKK assassins was actually an FBI informant and Hoover and his cronies worried that the FBI would get a black eye before the public, were that CI's affiliation with the FBI to emerge. Character assassination often works well to deflect attention to non-essential information (and away from essential information).