On March 25, 1965, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a California, Pa. native,  was murdered by murdered by white supremacists after participating at the protest march from Selma to Montgomery.

Liuzzo, the only white woman activist to have been murdered during the Civil Rights Movement,  was known for her active participation in organizations such as the Detroit chapter of the NAACP as well as being a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Liuzzo’s mother had attended what is now called PennWest California to receive her teaching certificate, which she used to teach others throughout the area.

During her time in college at Wayne State University, where she became the first posthumous honorary doctorate recipient, participated in protests against segregation and escalating violence with other students, showing her passionate struggle against the harmful ideologies of the Jim Crow era South. Her murder occurred after serving in the Montgomery march, where over 25,000 participants had gathered, as well as the famous speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When transporting protestors back to Selma, Liuzzo and Leroy Moton were followed by Klansmen to a secluded stretch of U.S. Route 80 in Lowndesboro, Alabama. The Klansmen pulled beside her and fired two shots, instantly killing her. Her car was found in a ditch not far from the crime scene.

Liuzzo’s death sparked the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits the United States from racial discrimination in the voting process. Liuzzo’s name is engraved on the National Civil Rights Memorial in Birmingham, Alabama. Her name is amongst forty others, including Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For more information visit https://calregenerations.org/viola-gregg-liuzzo-memorial/.