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THE MURDER OF VIOLA LIUZZO 
"Something is going to happen today, I feel it. Somebody is going to get killed..."
Viola Liuzzo was a 40 year-old housewife, and mother of five from Detroit, Michigan, who in the aftermath of the attack by state troopers on a peaceful voter's rights march in Selma, answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and traveled to Alabama to add her voice to the protest. The third Selma to Montgomery voters rights march left Selma on March 21, 1965. Viola remained in Selma, working on a hospitality desk in Brown's Chapel and ferrying people back and forth to Montgomery. She traveled to Montgomery on the evening of March 24 in order that she could join the protest the following day as it made it's way to the State Capitol. As she watched the march, she made the comment to an associate, "Something is going to happen today, I feel it. Somebody is going to get killed...", she later made the statement to others. After the march ended, she assisted with transporting people back from Montgomery to Selma in her green Oldsmobile. Her Michigan plates and black passengers made her car very conspicuous and on her first trip back to Selma, her car was bumped from the rear by a group of white youths. After she dropped off her passengers, she and her co-driver, a black man by the name of Leroy Moton, headed back to Montgomery to pick up another load of passengers. On their way out of town, they were spotted by four Klansmen who had driven to Selma from Bessemer. They chased Viola and Leroy for 20 miles at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, finally, they pulled alongside and fired repeatedly into the vehicle. Viola died instantly from two bullet wounds to the head. Luckily, Leroy was unhurt, and he was able to grab the steering wheel and bring the car to a halt at the side of the road, playing dead as the Klansmen pulled alongside to look into the Oldsmobile. After they had gone, he began to run back towards Montgomery until he was able to flag down a truck which was carrying more protesters and tell them what happened. The four Klansmen were arrested within 24 hours and were named as; Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr., Gary Thomas Rowe Jr., Eugene Thomas, and William Orville Eaton. None of the four were ever successfully tried for murder in Alabama. It transpired that Rowe had been an FBI informant for five years, and he testified against the others, and Eaton died of a heart attack in 1966. Both Wilkins and Thomas were tried for murder but both were acquitted. However, the three were all convicted of criminal conspiracy charges and received sentences of 10 years. Viola Liuzzo's body was returned home to Detroit on March 27, 1965. Links To Other Internet Resources concerning Viola Liuzzo: FBI Files - Viola Liuzzo Murder. The Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography - Viola Liuzzo. Spartacus - Viola Liuzzo. Sage.edu - Viola Liuzzo. Upstream - The many deaths of Viola Liuzzo. SIGN UP TO OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER If you would like us to keep you updated with changes and improvements to thatsalabama.com, please enter your email address here: If you would like to support thatsalabama.com with a donation via paypal, please click on this button: |
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