Viola Liuzzo

One of the greatest warrior, a white woman, fighting for civil rights during Bloody Sunday in Alabama after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King call for help, is remembered by many in the civil rights movement and the Unitarian Universalist denomination after being shot by members of the Ku Klux Klan for standing up for the rights of blacks. She was on highway 80 outside of Selma, and was shot twice in the head.

Viola Liuzzo was killed after Collie Wilkins (21), FBI informant Gary Rowe (34), William Eaton (41) and Eugene Thomas (42) shot her in the head twice. Liuzzo died on March 25, 1965, a mother of five children. Wilkins, Eaton, and Thomas were quickly arrested and charges were dropped against Rowe as he became a witness for the prosecution.

As the stories continued, how the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover tried to besmirch Liuzzo's name, the evil done to Liuzzo by the KKK and hate groups helped  President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Liuzzo and former pastor of of the American Unitarian Universalist Church in Boston James Reeb's death helped mark a positive note during a bloody history.

May both  Liuzzo and Reeb rest in peace knowing that their fight for equality is never forgotten and taken for granted.