Viola Liuzzo, a civil rights worker, traveled to Alabama to help with voter registration. In 1965 Ms. Luizzo was murdered en route to a civil rights meeting. Her murder was allegedly committed by KKK members Eugene Thomas, Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr. and William Orville Eaton. Thomas and Wilkins were found not guilty of first degree murder in state Court. All three suspects were found guilty of civil rights violations in U.S. District Court, Montgomery, AL. The three were sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison. Eaton died on March 9, 1966, from natural causes, before serving his sentence.

"Viola Gregg Liuzzo (April 11, 1925-March 25, 1965) was a white civil rights activist from the U.S. state of Michigan and mother of five, who was murdered by Ku Klux Klan members after the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama. One of the Klansmen in the car from which the shots were fired was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant.[1] After her death, she was the subject of a smear campaign by the FBI. Liuzzo's name is one of those inscribed on a civil rights memorial in the state capital." Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Liuzzo

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.

1 file (1,520 p.)

Federal Bureau of Investigation records, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Forms part of the Freedom of Information Privacy Act Collection.

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