Slain Civil Rights Activist To Receive Posthumous Degree

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BY COREY WILLIAMS

DETROIT (AP) -- For 24 years, a stone marker has stood along U.S. 80 in Alabama's Lowndes County, near the spot where Viola Gregg Liuzzo was fatally shot by Klansmen while shuttling demonstrators after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

But in Liuzzo's hometown of Detroit, such public recognition is scarce. A wooden marker bearing her name sits on a fence beside a small neighborhood playfield; Last year, an exhibit in Lansing included Liuzzo among Michigan women who contributed significantly to civil rights.

That will change on April 10. Liuzzo's former school, Wayne State University, plans to award her an honorary doctor of laws degree. It's the first posthumous honorary degree in the 145-year-old school's history. Wayne State also will dedicate a tree or green space for Liuzzo.

Liuzzo's five children have been invited to the ceremony. Liuzzo's husband, Anthony Liuzzo Sr., died in 1978.

FULL story at link.



In this March 26, 1965 file photo, an Alabama state troopers car is parked on the side of the road near Lownsboro, Ala, where Viola Gregg Liuzzo of Detroit, was shot to death while enroute to Montgomery. Wayne State University plans to give an honorary doctor of laws degree to Liuzzo during a ceremony on April 10. It will be the first posthumous honorary degree in the school’s history. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CIVIL_RIGHTS_ACTIVIST_HONOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Selma: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020072/

In the film "Selma" the part of Viola Liuzzo was played by Tara Ochs.

[Bluzmann57]

1. For a GREAT tune about Viola

Well I don't really don't have a link, but Robin Rogers did an absolutely fantastic tune about that horrific incident. I imagine it's on youtube somewhere. It'll make ya cry.
Name of the tune is "Color Blind Angel." You have to hear this song. The late great Robin Rogers belts it out and I have absolutely no doubt that she meant every word. Rest in Peace Robin.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Color Blind Angel

Robin's page: http://www.robinrogers.com/



From the album Treat Me Right: http://www.amazon.com/Treat-Me-Right-Robin-Rogers/dp/B0018NVZS4

http://www.amazon.com/Treat-Me-Right-Robin-Rogers/dp/B0018NVZS4

Music has been Robin Rogers' consuming passion ever since her days as a teenaged street singer. Possessing a deeply expressive and soulful voice and an infectious enthusiasm for the blues, Robin and her band have developed a devoted and growing following. Her Blind Pig debut, Treat Me Right, fulfills the promise of her previous two releases, revealing an accomplished artist of rare polish and originality. It features perhaps her most powerful composition, Color-Blind Angel, a moving account of the life and death of white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, who was assassinated by the KKK in 1965. Color-Blind Angel won second place in the blues category of the 2007 International Songwriters Competition.

[sheshe2]

3. KnR!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. K&R

I remember reading info and/or hearing about her story a year or so ago. Amazing to see that she was so fed up that she picked up and traveled down there to help. She would have been 90 this year.

[Archae]

5. That SOB Hoover tried to smear her.

Since his informant was in the shooters' car, he had the FBI put out leaks to newspapers smearing Liuzzo.

Typical of that asshole.

[WillyT]

6. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[Judi Lynn]

7. She should not be forgotten, any more than the other civil rights workers

who were willing to sacrifice their own lives because they knew how evil the treatment of so many other humans was, and how it had to stop.

Evil ways take far longer to disappear than they do to gain power. Those who benefit from evil are willing to kill others to keep their advantage. Not that many are willing to die in hope life might become possible for those who are suffering.

It takes a deep love and appreciation of life itself to feel pain for others who are suffering. This woman and all the others took those vital steps that will eventually lead to a better world. Clearly you have to see the big picture to care as much as she did.

[Cha]

8. This is brilliant..Mahalo Steve

RIP~Viola Gregg Liuzzo

[hinterlandg]

9. Viola Gregg Liuzzo is a Heroine

Viola Gregg Liuzzo was a fighter for what was fair and just. That degree was a long time coming, but better late than never.

[McKim]

10. A Visit to Her Monument

I visited her marble memorial on that ribbon of road between Selma and Montgomery. I leaned on the iron railing and I prayed, that I might carry on her work. Now in my home town I work for Civil Rights. I am so happy that she will receive this degree! She was someone who just said: Enough!

[greatlaurel]

11. Her children should be so very proud of their mother. She was a great woman.

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1377
"By 1965 Liuzzo was a 39-year-old, middle-class Detroit housewife and mother of five. After her youngest child started school, she enrolled as a part-time student at Wayne State University and was inspired by returning students' reports about the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project to register black voters. In March 1965, she participated in sympathy marches to demonstrate solidarity with blacks in Selma, Alabama, who were planning a pilgrimage to the state capitol to support passage of a federal voting-rights bill."

" She is the only white woman honored at the Montgomery Civil Rights Memorial."

She was an incredibly brave and brilliant woman. Viola Liuzzo is remembered for her bravery and honor. Her murderers and Hoover go down in history as twisted cowards, if anyone bothers to remember them at all.

Thanks for the OP.

[navarth]

12. It's about time. Good for WSU, my favorite university.

I remember very well when this happened; I remember the picture in the Free Press of Mr. Liuzzo crying. "...wept bitterly...." was how the caption said it, as I recall. A horrible, horrible thing. Viola was a great hero.

Sadly: I remember reading at one time that one of her sons is a gaping asshole right winger. Maybe it was on DU? I sure hope I'm remembering that wrong, because it's a disgrace if true. I'll be following this. Thanks for posting, Omaha Steve. You are a good man.