Viola Liuzzo

Viola Liuzzo
Born Viola Fauver Gregg
(1925-04-11)April 11, 1925
California, Pennsylvania, United States
Died March 25, 1965(1965-03-25) (aged 39)
Selma, Alabama, United States
Cause of death Murder by KKK
Occupation Civil rights activist
Children 5

Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo (April 11, 1925 – March 25, 1965) was a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist from Michigan. In March 1965 Liuzzo, then a housewife and mother of five with a history of local activism, heeded the call of Martin Luther King Jr and traveled from Detroit, Michigan to Selma, Alabama in the wake of the Bloody Sunday attempt at marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Liuzzo participated in the successful Selma to Montgomery marches and helped with coordination and logistics. Driving back from a trip shuttling fellow activists to the Montgomery airport, she was shot dead by members of the Ku Klux Klan. She was 39 years old.

One of the four Klansmen in the car from which the shots were fired was Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant Gary Thomas Rowe.[1][2] Rowe testified against the shooters and was moved and given an assumed name by the FBI.[3] The FBI later leaked what were purported to be salacious details about Liuzzo which were never proved or substantiated in any way.

In addition to other honors, Liuzzo's name is today inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama created by Maya Lin.

Early life

Liuzzo was born Viola Fauver Gregg on April 11, 1925, in the small town of California, Pennsylvania, the elder daughter of Eva Wilson, a teacher, and Heber Ernest Gregg, a coal miner and World War I veteran. He left school in the eighth grade, but taught himself to read. Her mother, Eva Wilson Gregg, had a teaching certificate from the University of Pittsburgh. The couple had one other daughter, Rose Mary, in 1930. While on the job, Heber's right hand was blown off in a mine explosion, and, during the Great Depression, the Greggs became solely dependent on Eva’s income. Work was very hard to come by for Mrs. Gregg, as she could only pick up sporadic, short-term, teaching positions. The family descended further into poverty and decided to move Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Eva Gregg found a teaching position, when Viola was six.[4]

The family was very poor and lived in one-room shacks with no running water. The schools Liuzzo attended did not have adequate supplies and the teachers were too busy to give extra attention to children in need. Because the family moved so often, Liuzzo never began and ended the school year in the same place. Having spent much of her childhood and adolescence poor in Tennessee, Viola experienced the segregated nature of the South firsthand. This would eventually have a powerful impact on Liuzzo’s activism. It was during her formative years that Liuzzo realized the unjustness of segregation and racism, as she and her family, in similar conditions of great poverty, were still afforded social privilege and amenities denied to African Americans under the Jim Crow laws.[5] Although her parents argued against it, Liuzzo dropped out of school in the tenth grade. She and her father often argued about her social activities and, at the age of 16, Liuzzo ran away and married a much older man. The marriage lasted only one day.

Local activism

In addition to actively supporting the civil rights movement, Liuzzo was also notable for her protest against Detroit laws that allowed for students to more easily drop out of school. Liuzzo's disagreement with this law, no doubt stemming from her first hand knowledge of the consequences of such a decision, led her to withdraw her children from school in protest. Because she deliberately homeschooled them for two months, Liuzzo was arrested, but did not waver. She pleaded guilty in court and was placed on probation.[4]

Selma

In February 1965, a night demonstration for voting rights at the Marion, Alabama courthouse turned violent. State troopers clubbed marchers and beat and shot a 26-year-old African American named Jimmie Lee Jackson, who later died. His death spurred on the fight for civil rights in Selma, Alabama. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) scheduled a protest march for Sunday, March 7, 1965. Governor George Wallace banned the march, but the ban was ignored. Six hundred marchers headed for the arched Edmund Pettus Bridge that crossed the Alabama River. As the protesters reached the crest of the bridge, they saw a terrifying sight on the other side: state troopers armed with clubs, whips, and tear gas, and a sheriff’s posse on horseback. When told to stop and disperse the marchers refused. The troopers advanced on the marchers, clubbing and whipping them, fracturing bones and gashing heads. Seventeen people were hospitalized on the day later called "Bloody Sunday."

Liuzzo was horrified by the images of the aborted march on March 7, 1965, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge which became known as "Bloody Sunday." The second march took place March 9. Troopers, police, and marchers confronted each other at the county end of the bridge, but when the troopers stepped aside to let them pass, King led the marchers back to the church.[6] He was obeying a federal injunction while seeking protection from federal court for the march. That night, a white group beat and murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, who had come to Selma to march with the second group.[7] Many other clergy and sympathizers from across the country also gathered for the second march.

On March 16th, Liuzzo took part in a protest at Wayne State. She then called her husband to tell him she would be traveling to Selma after hearing the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. call for people of all faiths to come and help, saying that the struggle "was everybody's fight." Leaving her children in the care of family and friends she contacted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who took her on and tasked her with delivering aid to various locations, welcoming and recruiting volunteers and transporting volunteers and marchers to and from airports, bus terminals and train stations, for which she volunteered the use of her car,[4] a 1963 Oldsmobile.

On Sunday, March 21, 1965 more than 3,000 people began the third march, including blacks, whites, doctors, nurses, working-class people, priests, nuns, rabbis, homemakers, students, actors, and farmers. Many famous people participated, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Ralph Bunche, Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young. It took five days for the protesters to reach their goal. Liuzzo marched the first full day and returned to Selma for the night. On Wednesday, March 24, she rejoined the march four miles from the end, where a “Night of the Stars” celebration was held the City of St. Jude with performances by many popular entertainers of the day, including Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joan Baez, and Dick Gregory. Liuzzo helped at the first aid station. On Thursday, Liuzzo and other marchers reached the state capitol building, with a Confederate flag flying above it. Martin Luther King addressed the crowd of 25,000, calling the march, a "shining moment in American history."

Death and funeral

After the third march concluded on March 25, Liuzzo, assisted by Leroy Moton, a 19-year-old African American, continued shuttling marchers and volunteers from Montgomery back to Selma in her car. As they were driving along Route 80, a car tried to force them off the road. After dropping passengers in Selma, she and Moton headed back to Montgomery. As they were getting gas at a local filling station, they were subject to abusive calls and racist scorn. When Liuzzo stopped at a red light, a car with four white men pulled up alongside her. These men belonged to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a group that supported the continuation of segregation. When they saw a white woman and a black man in a car together, they followed Liuzzo, who tried to outrun them. Overtaking the Oldsmobile, three men shot directly at Liuzzo, hitting her twice in the head and killing her instantly. The car veered into a ditch and crashed into a fence.[8] Although Moton was covered with blood, the bullets had missed him. He lay motionless when the Klansmen reached the car to check on their victims. After the Klansmen left, Moton began searching for help, and eventually flagged down a truck driven by Rev. Leon Riley. Rev Riley was, like Moton and Liuzzo, shuttling civil rights workers back to Selma. Liuzzo had been shot in the head and died in Lowndesboro, Alabama, on March 25, 1965.

Liuzzo's funeral was held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic church on March 30 in Detroit, with many prominent members of both the civil rights movement and government there to pay their respects. Included in this group were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins; Congress on Racial Equality national leader James Farmer; Michigan lieutenant governor William G. Milliken; Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa; and United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther. She was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.She will be forever remembered as a civil rights activist.

Less than two weeks after her death, a charred cross was found in front of four Detroit homes, including the Liuzzo residence.[9]

The four Klan members in the car, Collie Wilkins (21), FBI informant Gary Rowe (34), William Eaton (41) and Eugene Thomas (42) were quickly arrested: within 24 hours, President Lyndon Johnson appeared on national television to announce their arrest. In order to avoid bad press, President Johnson made sure to focus on the positive work of the FBI agents' solving of the murder of Viola Liuzzo, in an attempt to divert scrutiny away from the fact that one of the men in the car, Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr., was an FBI informant and thus was protected by the FBI.[10]

Alabama mistrial and acquittal

Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas were indicted in the State of Alabama for Liuzzo's death on April 22. FBI informant Rowe was not indicted and served as a witness. Rowe testified that Wilkins had fired two shots on the order of Thomas.[11] Defense lawyer Matt Murphy quickly attempted to have the case dismissed on the grounds that President Johnson had violated the suspects' civil rights when he named them in his televised announcement. Murphy also indicated he would call Johnson as a witness during the upcoming trial.

On May 3 an all-white jury was selected for Wilkins' trial, with Rowe the key witness. Three days later, Murphy made blatantly racist comments during his final arguments, including calling Liuzzo a "white nigger," in order to sway the jury. The tactic was successful enough that the all-white jury could not come to a decision (voting 10–2 in favor of conviction) and a mistrial was declared. On May 10, the three accused killers were part of a Klan parade which closed with a standing ovation for them.

Another all-white jury was selected on October 20. Before the re-trial got under way, defense attorney Murphy fell asleep while driving an automobile and was killed when his car hit a gasoline truck on August 20. The former mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Art Hanes, agreed to take over representation for all three defendants one week later. Hanes was a staunch segregationist who served as mayor during the tumultuous 1963 period in which police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor used fire hoses on African American protesters. The attorney attacked the credibility of the informant, Rowe, stating that he fabricated information. The two-day trial ended when the empanelled jurors took less than two hours to acquit Wilkins.

Federal civil trial

The next phase of the lengthy process began when a federal trial charged the defendants with conspiracy to intimidate African-Americans under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction civil rights statute. The charges did not specifically refer to Liuzzo's murder. On December 3, the trio were found guilty by an all-white, all-male jury, and were sentenced to ten years in prison, a landmark in southern legal history.[12]

While out on appeal, Wilkins and Thomas were each found guilty of firearms violations and sent to jail for those crimes. During this period, the January 15, 1966, edition of the Birmingham News published an ad offering Liuzzo's bullet-ridden car for sale. Asking $3,500, the ad read, "Do you need a crowd-getter? I have a 1963 Oldsmobile two-door in which Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was killed. Bullet holes and everything intact. Ideal to bring in crowds."[13]

After all three defendants were convicted of the federal charges, state murder cases proceeded against Eaton and Thomas. Eaton, the only defendant who remained out of jail, died of a heart attack on March 9. Thomas's state murder trial - the final trial - got under way on September 26, 1966. The prosecution built a strong circumstantial case in the trial that included an FBI ballistics expert testifying that the bullet removed from the woman's brain was fired from a revolver owned by Thomas. Two witnesses testified they had seen Wilkins drinking beer at a VFW Hall near Birmingham, 125 miles from the murder scene, an hour or less after Liuzzo was shot. Despite the presence of eight African Americans on the jury, Thomas was acquitted of the state murder charge the following day after just 90 minutes of deliberations. State attorney general Richmond Flowers, Sr. criticized the verdict, deriding the black members of the panel, who had been carefully screened, as "Uncle Toms."

On April 27, 1967, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the federal convictions of the surviving defendants. Thomas served six years in prison for the crime. Due to threats from the Klan, both before and after his testimony, Gary Thomas Rowe went into the federal witness protection program.[14] Rowe died in 1998 in Savannah Georgia after having lived several decades under several assumed identities [3]

FBI cover-up and leaks

Within 24 hours after Liuzzo's assassination by the Ku Klux Klan and the FBI's informant Gary Thomas Rowe, J. Edgar Hoover began a smear campaign to the press, to subordinate FBI agents and to select politicians, claiming the cut marks from the car's shattered window were "puncture marks in her arm indicating recent use of a hypodermic needle; she was sitting very, very close to that negro in the car; that it has the appearance of a necking party."[15]

While attempting to obscure the fact that an FBI informant was in the car, and to ensure that the FBI was not held responsible for permitting their informant to participate in violent acts, without FBI surveillance or backup,[16] the FBI was concerned that they might be held accountable for their informant's (Rowe) role in the death. Rowe had been an informant for the FBI since 1960. The FBI was aware that Rowe had participated in acts of violence during Ku Klux Klan activities. On the day of Liuzzo's death, prior to the shooting, Rowe called his FBI contact and notified him that Rowe and other Klansman were travelling to Montgomery, and that violence was planned.[16]

Hoover further 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.[17][18]

In 1978, investigations revealed that Rowe, the FBI informant, may have been involved in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 where four black girls were killed. In November 1978, a grand jury indicted Rowe for the murder of Liuzzo, but he fought the extradition proceedings against him. In 1980, an FBI file revealed that Rowe had clubbed Freedom Riders and that the FBI had paid his medical bills and given him a $125 bonus.

Aftermath

Memorial to Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo in Lowndes County, Alabama

It is surmised by many (civil rights activists, Liuzzo's children, etc.) that Liuzzo's death helped the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which removed barriers to voting such as literacy tests and poll taxes. President Lyndon B. Johnson also ordered investigation immediately after the death. Liuzzo was criticized by different racist organizations for having brought her death upon herself. At that time, Liuzzo’s choice to immerse herself in such a dangerous undertaking was seen as extremely radical and controversial. However, of all the deaths to occur during the campaign, Liuzzo's was the only one scrutinized in such a way, where other male activists who were killed were recognized as heroes.[5]

On December 28, 1977, the Liuzzo family filed a lawsuit against the FBI, charging that Rowe, as an employee of the FBI, had failed to prevent Liuzzo's death and had in effect conspired in the murder. Then, on July 5, 1979, the American Civil Liberties Union filed another lawsuit on behalf of the family.

Rowe was indicted in 1978 and tried for his involvement in the murder.[19] The first trial ended in a hung jury, and the second trial ended in his acquittal.[14]

On May 27, 1983, a judge rejected the claims in the Liuzzo family lawsuit, saying there was "no evidence the FBI was in any type of joint venture with Rowe or conspiracy against Mrs. Liuzzo. Rowe's presence in the car was the principal reason why the crime was solved so quickly." In August 1983, the FBI was awarded $79,873 in court costs, but costs were later reduced to $3,645 after the ACLU appealed on behalf of the family. See Liuzzo v. US, 565 F. Supp. 640 (1983).

Legacy

Liuzzo was featured in part 3 of a series of videos, "Free at Last: Civil Rights Heroes."

Her murder was shown in Episode 2 of the King miniseries.

An episode of the CBS TV series Cold Case, entitled "Wednesday's Women," was loosely based on her case.

Viola Liuzzo Park is located at Winthrop and Trojan in Detroit.[20]

Liuzzo has her name included as part of the Civil Rights Memorial, a monument in Montgomery, Alabama created by Maya Lin.[21]

In 1991, Liuzzo was honored by the Women of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with a marker on the highway (Highway 80) where she was murdered in the Ku Klux Klan attack in 1965.

In 2004, Liuzzo was the subject of a documentary, Home of the Brave.

In 2008, Liuzzo's story was memorialized in a song, "Color Blind Angel" by the late blues singer Robin Rogers on her album, Treat Me Right.[22]

In 2011, the Viola Liuzzo Ethics Scholarship was started at Adrian College.[23]

In 2014, the play Outside Agitators, written by 20% Theater's Artistic Associate, Laura Nessler, which is inspired by and based on Liuzzo's story, premiered. It premiered at the Prop Theater in Chicago, Illinois on September 20.[24]

Also in 2014, Liuzzo was played by Tara Ochs in the film Selma.

In 2015, Wayne State University bestowed its first posthumous honorary doctorate degree on Liuzzo.[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Viola Liuzzo". Uua.org. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
  2. ↑ "Government Evils Not To Be Forgotten". JrHighDropOut.com. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
  3. 1 2 "Gary T. Rowe Jr., 64, Who Informed on Klan In Civil Rights Killing, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Harvard Women's Law Journal REVIEW ESSAY: Viola Liuzzo and the Gendered Politics of Martyrdom: From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. By Mary Stanton. 2004.
  5. 1 2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/93289614
  6. ↑ Branch, Taylor (2013). The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement. Simon & Schuster.
  7. ↑ http://uudb.org/articles/jamesjosephreeb.html
  8. ↑ "Civil Rights Martyr Viola Liuzzo". Teamsters. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Fourth Cross Is Burned On Detroit Lawn". The Brownsville Herald. April 4, 1964. p. 1. Retrieved August 4, 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Gary May (2005). "The Informant: The FBI, The Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo". Yale University Press. p. 431. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
  11. ↑ http://law.jrank.org/pages/3141/Collie-Leroy-Wilkins-Trial-1965.html
  12. ↑ Stanton, p 130
  13. ↑ "Liuzzo protests car advertising". Baltimore Afro-American. 18 January 1966. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  14. 1 2 Judge Peter Thorp Fay for the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (May 17, 1982). "676 F. 2d 524 - Rowe v. Griffin". United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved October 15, 2014. cited at OpenJurist
  15. ↑ Jack Anderson, The Evening News, 21MAR1983 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19830321&id=QV1GAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zTENAAAAIBAJ&pg=2477,2441456&hl=en
  16. 1 2 Stanton, pp 52-55.
  17. ↑ Stanton, pp 52-55, 189-192.
  18. ↑ Blake, p 201. Quote from Penny on p. 201.
  19. ↑ Ingalls, 1979.
  20. ↑ "Week of events will honor Viola Liuzzo". Detroitnews.com. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-11.
  21. ↑ "Civil Rights Martyrs | Southern Poverty Law Center". Splcenter.org. Retrieved 2015-04-11.
  22. ↑ Horowitz, Hal (2008-06-24). "Treat Me Right - Robin Rogers : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
  23. ↑ "Contact Magazine Spring 2012 by Adrian College". ISSUU. Retrieved 2015-04-11.
  24. ↑ "Outside Agitators". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  25. ↑ Spratling, Cassandra (1965-03-25). "Wayne State hails civil rights icon Viola Liuzzo as hero". Freep.com. Retrieved 2015-04-11.

References

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