Viola Liuzzo, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Viola Liuzzo

American activist

Date of Birth: 11-Apr-1925

Place of Birth: California, Pennsylvania, United States

Date of Death: 25-Mar-1965

Profession: human rights activist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Viola Fauver Liuzzo (née Gregg; 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 murdered 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.
Rowe testified against the shooters and was given witness protection by the FBI.
The FBI immediately began a smear campaign leaking to the press what were purported to be salacious details about Liuzzo.
The FBI attempted to downplay the situation and discredit Liuzzo by spreading rumors that she was a member of the Communist Party, was a heroin addict, and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with African-Americans involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
All of these rumors were entirely false, and were wholely fabricated by the FBI.In addition to other honors, Liuzzo's name is today inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, created by Maya Lin.