1. Viola Fauver Liuzzo was an American civil rights activist in Detroit, Michigan.
34 Facts About Viola Liuzzo
1. 2.
Viola Liuzzo was known for going to Alabama in March 1965 to support the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights.
3.
Viola Liuzzo was given many honors posthumously; her name was inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.
4.
Viola Liuzzo's grandson set up a scholarship in her honor.
5.
Viola Liuzzo Fauver Gregg was born 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.
6.
Viola Liuzzo's father had taught himself to read as a child and left school in the eighth grade.
7.
Viola Liuzzo's mother had a teaching certificate from Southwestern Pennsylvania Normal School.
8.
Viola Liuzzo had difficulty finding anything other than short-term teaching positions.
9.
The schools Viola Liuzzo attended did not have adequate supplies, and teachers had little time to deal with the many children in need.
10.
Viola Liuzzo dropped out of high school after a year and eloped at the age of 16.
11.
Viola Liuzzo's marriage did not last, and she returned to her family.
12.
Viola Liuzzo Gregg witnessed some of these, which influenced her later civil rights work.
13.
Viola Liuzzo wanted to gain more education and trained to become a medical laboratory assistant at the Carnegie Institute in Detroit, Michigan.
14.
Viola Liuzzo protested against Detroit's laws that allowed students to drop out of school more easily.
15.
Viola Liuzzo temporarily withdrew her own children from public school to express her opposition to the law.
16.
Viola Liuzzo pleaded guilty in court and was placed on probation.
17.
Viola Liuzzo's death spurred the fight for civil rights in nearby Selma, the larger county seat of Dallas County.
18.
Viola Liuzzo led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, whose members planned a protest march for Sunday, March 7,1965.
19.
Viola Liuzzo volunteered the use of her car, a 1963 Oldsmobile.
20.
Viola Liuzzo was stopped at a red light when a car with four white men pulled up alongside.
21.
Viola Liuzzo lay motionless as the Klansmen checked their victims.
22.
Viola Liuzzo flagged down a truck driven by Rev Leon Riley, who had been shuttling civil rights workers to Selma.
23.
Viola Liuzzo focused on the positive work of FBI agents' solving Liuzzo's murder.
24.
Viola Liuzzo died in 1998 in Savannah, Georgia, after having lived several decades under several assumed identities.
25.
The results of autopsy testing, which was conducted in 1965, revealed that Viola Liuzzo's system did not contain any traces of drugs.
26.
Viola Liuzzo was condemned at the time by different racist organizations for having brought her death upon herself.
27.
The Viola Liuzzo family sued the FBI for the death of Viola Liuzzo and associated damages.
28.
The 'Viola Liuzzo Papers' contain documentation of the events of the murder, the resulting investigation, and the later legal actions taken by the Liuzzo Family.
29.
Viola Liuzzo was featured in part 3 of a TV series, Free at Last: Civil Rights Heroes.
30.
Viola Liuzzo's murder was shown in episode 2 of the King miniseries.
31.
In 2004, Viola Liuzzo was the subject of a documentary, Home of the Brave.
32.
In 2008, Viola Liuzzo was memorialized in a song, "Color Blind Angel", by the late blues singer Robin Rogers on her album Treat Me Right.
33.
Viola Liuzzo was played by Tara Ochs in the 2014 film Selma.
34.
In 2019, a statue which honors Viola Liuzzo was unveiled in Detroit.