Courageous Viola Liuzzo – (1926-1965)
Reader’s Theatre by Meg Bowman
August 25, 2013
When Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for people to come to Selma in March, 1965 to support a Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, 25,000 peoples responded.
Two were murdered, both white, both Unitarians. Rev. James Reeb of Boston was beaten to death and Viola was shot in the face by a KKK thug getting paid by the FBI and who never spent a day in jail.
This is a tragic and terrifying story when you realize it happened in the United States in modern times, and that there are more active hate groups now than there were in the late 1960s.
To save face, J. Edgar Hoover led a media smear campaign not only on Viola but also her husband, a union official. The FBI removed the wedding rings from Viola’s body, and refused to return them to the family until 1975 – 10 years later. Learn the full story – as you consider the current U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act.
Written and narrated by Meg Bowman, an HCSV member, with Humanist cast.
For additional thoughts on this subject see the article, Color of Law, in the New Yorker Magazine, July 8, 2013.
Meg has authored a number of books which you can review at: http://www.uuwr.org/new-store/books/174-bowman-books.
Humanist Community Forum (2013-08-25): Courageous Viola Liuzzo – 1926-1965 (Meg Bowman+volunteers) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.