Viola Fauver Liuzzo (née Gregg; April 11, 1925 – March 25, 1965) was an American civil rights activist in Detroit, Michigan.

On March 25, 1965, she was shot dead by three Ku Klux Klan members while driving activists between the cities and transportation.

The federal government charged the three KKK members with conspiracy to intimidate African Americans under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction era civil rights statute.

On December 3, the trio was found guilty by an all-white, all-male jury, a landmark in Southern legal history.

Struggling with poverty, when Viola was six the family decided to move from Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Eva found a teaching position.

[citation needed] In 1941, the Gregg family moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where her father sought work to assemble bombs at the Ford Motor Co. Viola dropped out of high school after a year and eloped at the age of 16.

[10] Liuzzo wanted to gain more education and trained to become a medical laboratory assistant at the Carnegie Institute in Detroit, Michigan.

[10] In 1964, she began attending the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit and joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

[10] A large part of Liuzzo's activism, particularly with the NAACP, developed from her close friendship with Sarah Evans, an African-American woman.

The two women had both grown up in the South,[10] and found they had similar views on some issues, including support for the civil rights movement.

State troopers clubbed marchers; they beat and fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old African-American man.

[12] That night, a white group beat and murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, who had come to Selma for the second march.

They were blacks, whites, working-class people, doctors, nurses, priests, nuns, rabbis, homemakers, students, actors, and farmers.

"[citation needed] After the march, Liuzzo, assisted by Leroy Moton, a 19-year-old African American, continued shuttling marchers and volunteers from Montgomery back to Selma in her car.

The men were found to be members of the local Ku Klux Klan, including Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant.

[citation needed] Liuzzo's funeral was held on March 30 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit.

Among them were Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins, Congress on Racial Equality national leader James Farmer, Michigan lieutenant governor William G. Milliken, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, and United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther.

Less than two weeks after her death, a charred cross was found in front of four Detroit homes, including the Liuzzo residence.

The four Klan members in the car—Collie Wilkins (21), FBI informant Gary Rowe (34), William Eaton (41), and Eugene Thomas (43)—were quickly arrested.

[citation needed] The Department of Justice charged the three defendants with conspiracy to intimidate African Americans under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction civil rights statute.

On December 3, the trio was found guilty by an all-white, all-male jury, and were sentenced to ten years in prison, a landmark in Southern legal history.

During this period, the January 15, 1966, edition of The Birmingham News published an ad offering Liuzzo's bullet-ridden car for sale.

[citation needed] On April 27, 1967, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the federal convictions of the surviving defendants.

He leaked false information to the press, subordinate FBI agents, and select politicians, claiming that there were "puncture marks in her arm indicating recent use of a hypodermic needle; she was sitting very, very close to that negro in the car; that it has the appearance of a necking party.

On May 27, 1983, Judge Charles Wycliffe Joiner rejected the claims, saying there was "no evidence the FBI was in any type of joint venture with Rowe or conspiracy against Mrs. Liuzzo.

[27] The Walter P. Reuther Library of Wayne State University contains original archival material related to Liuzzo and her case.

Episode 3 of the sixth season of the CBS crime drama Cold Case, "Wednesday's Women", was loosely based on Liuzzo's story.

In 2008, Liuzzo was memorialized in a song, "Color Blind Angel", by the late blues singer Robin Rogers on her album Treat Me Right.

[35] In 2021, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson ordered the re-issue of the 1965 Winter/Water Wonderland license plates, in homage to Liuzzo; one was on her car when she drove from Detroit to Alabama.

Secretary Benson said she had started her career in Montgomery, Alabama, and was moved by Liuzzo's advocacy to try to gain the vote for all people.