Klan Murders A White Woman Who Dared To March With Blacks for Voting Rights in Alabama

 

Viola Liuzzo in a family portrait and working with marchers in Selma, AL 

Lowndes County, Alabama, March 25, 1965— A Detroit mother was murdered by the Klan on this day because she believed in equality and justice and came to Alabama to march with Blacks protesting for their civil rights.

Viola Liuzzo was described by her husband as someone “who fought for everyone’s rights. She was a champion for the underdog.” Liuzzo had come to Selma to help marchers in any way she could. She had told her husband, “its everyone’s fight,” the evening she left to drive to Alabama to help protesters in the Selma to Montogomery March.

Liuzzo grew up in segregated Tennessee, and this formed her views on civil rights. An active member of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, she was familiar with organized protests and the problems in Alabama. She had left Detroit after witnessing the events of “Bloody Sunday,” on March 7^th, when police and vigilantes attacked Black marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stop them from marching to Montogomery to protest their inability to vote due to poll taxes and poll tests.

On March 25^th, the protest had climaxed, and demonstrators were breaking up in too small groups and looking for ways home. Liuzzo agreed to shuttle people back to Selma and was riding with a young Black man, 19-year-old Leroy Moton. He had agreed to help drive if she needed it. After dropping some people in Selma Liuzzo and Moton were headed back to Montgomery on State Highway 80 when they picked up a tail.

Earlier in the day, Ku Klux Klan members had gathered at Silver Moon Café. They had been keeping the protest under surveillance under orders from their Klavern in Birmingham. When they left Selma to head back to Montgomery, they saw Liuzzo’s green Oldsmobile. The car had Michigan plates, and Moton was sitting in the front seat with Liuzzo. This triggered them because it was everything they hated about the civil rights movement, outsiders, and race mixing. So, they followed. Moton said that Liuzzo was singing “WE Shall Overcome” when the car caught them, even though they were going down the two-lane road at nearly 100 miles an hour. Even at the speed, the Klansmen pulled alongside and shot into the car, instantly killing Liuzzo, the car wrecked knocking Moton out. When he woke up, he flagged down a passing truck and notified the authorities in Selma.

Within 24 hours, President Lyndon Johnson had appeared on television to report the arrest of three Klan members for Liuzzo’s murder.  Eugene Thomas, Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr., and William Orville Eaton had all been arrested. A fourth man, Gary Rowe, had not been since he was an FBI informant.

Rowe went on to testify against the men in three trials. Although he had been recruited to infiltrate the Klan in 1959, he was also being recruited by the Klan, in his time as an informant Rowe hade been under superstition many times including for providing the dynamite or even that he built the bombs that killed four little girls in the 1963 the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. Rowe, though, was protected by the FBI on orders from director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover took the civil rights movement and protests personally and felt certain that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a communist agent trained to disrupt America. Hoover was concerned that the high-profile murder could lead the press to find out about Rowe, and that would make the FBI culpable in not just the murder of Liuzzo but other activities.

Liuzzo’s body was flown back to Detroit on the private plane of Teamster’s president, Jimmy Hoffa, and met by her family. Liuzzo’s husband was a business manager for the Teamsters in Detroit at the time of the murder. The funeral was held on March 30^th at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit. It was attended by Dr. King, future congressman John Lewis, and NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins. Also, by Michigan Lt. Governor William G. Milliken. Hoffa and United Auto Workers Union President Walter Reuther.

Despite the high-profile individuals at the funeral or perhaps because of it, crosses were burned the next night in Detroit, including on the Liuzzo’s lawn. For at least the next two years, the family had security at their home both extended police presence and private security. Despite this, the Liuzzo children were bullied and taunted at school.

This was made worse as trial preparations began, and the Klan, the lawyer for the three accused men, and the FBI all seemed to work in tandem to smear Liuzzo’s reputation. Rumors and stories were spread that Mrs. Liuzzo had been a heroin user and had abandoned her family to have sexual relations with Black men.

At the state trials, these rumors and the bias present in the jury resulted in a hung jury in the accused's first trial after just 6 hours. A second trial led to a verdict of innocent by an all-White male jury. If left at that level, there would be no justice. Fortunately, President Johnson’s Department of Justice decided to bring federal charges against the three Klan members for conspiring to violate the civil rights of Mrs. Liuzzo. They were convicted and each sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The murder of Viola Liuzzo became a transcendent moment in the Civil Rights cause. She became a martyr for the movement, and it was her murder that led Johnson to declare war on the Klan and bring Hoover to heel by ordering the director to engage in enforcing the Civil Rights Act. It is also believed by most historians that Liuzzo’s murder was the push to get the Civil Rights Act passed.

In the aftermath of the murder Leroy Moton became an agitator and hard worker for the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Council to help to register voters in Illinois, Michigan, and Georgia. In interviews, he said that for years he had guilt and wondered why he survived when a mother of 5 didn’t. He died quietly at age 78 in 2023 at his son’s home in Hartford, Connecticut.

Rowe would become a highly controversial figure for the rest of his life. He was subpoenaed to appear before a Congressional Committee. He was prepared to make the FBI the wrongdoers in his life and testified that they never attempted to stop his violence against Blacks. He received immunity and went into the witness protection program even though he acknowledged attacking freedom riders and killing a Black man. He wrote a book about his time undercover that was turned into a TV Movie in 1979.

The Liuzzo family sued the FBI for the death of Liuzzo and associated damages. 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.” 

In the decades since Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, her brother Anthony and sister Sally have taken every opportunity to tell the world of the heroism and compassion of their mother, as well as the pain experienced by their family following her death and the subsequent smear campaign against her character. They have dedicated their lives to destroying the image Hoover had tried to create.

 

Leroy Moton in 1965 and 2023

Sources:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/03/27/101535542.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

https://www.wvtm13.com/article/alabama-montgomery-selma-viola-liuzzo-kkk-civil-rights/63907002

https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/liuzzo-viola-0

https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/viola-liuzzo

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/selma50/2015/03/08/liuzzos-children-know-played-pivotal-role/24631939/

 

 

The Harlem Uprising Ignighted The Long Hot Summer Of 1964

 

Police watch protesters at Robert F. Wagner Sr. Junior High School on East 76th Street, July 17, 1964. Photo by Marion S. Trikosk, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

July 18, 1964, Harlem ~ It began, as it so often has, with the shooting of a Black youth and ended in burned buildings, hospitalizations, and arrests. The Harlem Riots of 1964 were four days of a violent uprising that changed little between the police and Black citizens.

On July 16 several Black youths were on the stoop of a building across the street from Robert F. Wagner Sr. Junior High School on East 76th Street. This was normal but did aggravate the building superintendent Patrick Lynch and on the afternoon of the 16^th he had, had enough and sprayed the assembled boys with a hose, he reportedly shouted, “Dirty niggers, I'll wash you clean," at them. James Powell a 15-year-old who was a student at the school ran inside chasing Lynch. The other boys had been throwing bottles and trash at Lynch.

Drawn by the noise an off-duty police Lieutenant, Michael Gilligan, who was White, came out of a store next to the brownstone when he saw the commotion he drew his gun. Gilligan said he held up his badge and came up the stairs to find Powell running out of the building, then he shot Powell twice killing him. The facts of the shooting are disputed with Gilligan swearing Powell lunged at him with a knife and witnesses claiming Powell did not have a weapon. A pocketknife was found in the street gutter later.

At the same time of the shooting the students of the junior high were released for the day, and they rushed to support their fellow students. This led to a tense situation with the police now on the scene. At least 75 officers had to come to the scene to quell the disturbance. No arrests were made at the time.

The morning following the shooting saw peaceful protesting in Harlem at the school led by the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE. The protesters at the school chanted “Stop killer cops!”, “We want legal protection” and “End police brutality!” They were met by 50 officers with nightsticks but there was no violence. CORE was calling on the police department to fire Lt. Gilligan or for him to resign.

The backdrop to all of this was how Black New Yorkers were mainly segregated in worn-out neighborhoods, denied employment opportunities, and frequently profiled and mistreated by police. The summer Powell was killed the majority of Black New Yorkers were angry and ready for rebellion.

On the third day, July 18, the situation was still tense and escalating. It was hot and humid, and the police were being unnecessarily aggressive and provocative. James Powell’s funeral was that morning and the police had installed barricades but also held a rally to protest the crime rate in Harlem. After the funeral, CORE held a peaceful rally, and the Reverend Nelson C. Dukes called for protestors to march on the 28th police precinct. At the precinct rally organizers attempted to meet with precinct commander police Inspector Pendergast. However, whatever was said between organizers and Pendergast was lost as the crowd turned violent. They started throwing bottles, bricks, and anything they could find, others had gone to the rooftops to bombard the police. Pendergast told officers to stop the violence and clear the streets.

By ten that night over a thousand people had gathered at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 125th Street. Police were using megaphones and speakers to tell the crowd, “Go home, go home." The crowd was recorded screaming back: "We are home, Baby!" The police tactical team was called in as rioting began, the mob marched down 123^rd Street wrecking storefronts and destroying city property. Some police fired into the air while others went directly into the rioters. By 8 am when this first major burst of violence settled one man had been killed, 19 others injured as well as 14 police officers injured enough to receive care. This was another disputed fact as area hospitals reported over 100 serious injuries tied directly to the rioting.

As the morning of the 19^th went on, a statement from Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy was sent to all the churches in Harlem that read, “In our estimation, this is a crime problem and not a social problem!" No less than Malcolm X responded to this with what many considered a warning or a threat. "There are probably more armed Negroes in Harlem than in any other spot on earth. If the people who are armed get involved in this, you can bet they'll really have something on their hands," said the famed civil rights leader.

Tensions remained high with both sides allegedly taunting the other and by afternoon the riot was full scale again. This time the chaos appeared to settle by 1:30 am with another 200 people being treated in hospital reports, while the official police report only said 93 people. 103 arrests were made.

The next two nights and days were very much the same with peaceful protests being disrupted by police who charged into protesters and began indiscriminately beating people. Also, the police announced a major investigation targeting protest organizers and Black Nationalists such as the Harlem Progressive Labor Club, the Harlem branch of the Progressive Labor Party.

The violence seemed to burn itself out by the night of July 22 and clean-up began. The uprising had an incredible cost with 500 shops damaged, and many destroyed. One person was listed as killed in the official police records with 465 men and women arrested. There was between 1 million and 2 million dollars in damages, approximately $19 million in 2024 dollars.

Two months after the shooting, Lt. Gilligan was cleared of any wrongdoing by a grand jury. He maintained Powell had lunged at him with a knife. Coincidently the riot broke out one month after President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and at the same time as Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, an opponent of the Civil Rights Act was being named the Republican candidate for president in 1964. Goldwater was promising to be tough on crime, a theme every Republican presidential candidate has carried since.

Two reform attempts were made to help the Black residents of Harlem and New York City at large. The first was “Project Uplift” which was funded by Johnson’s Great Society program. For the summer of 1965 thousands of young Blacks were able to get jobs and job training, but it only lasted that summer. In 1966 New York City Mayor John Lindsay changed the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the board that investigated complaints against the police. Lindsay added four civilians to the board which had previously been all police, The move outraged the Police union which organized with business owners and the Chamber of Commerce to reverse the decision by a public vote. The police campaign was run on fears of rising crime and racism.

Sadly the Harlem Uprising was just the first outbreak of violence in major American cities in the summer of 1964 which eventually became known as the “Long Hot Summer” in our history books.

 

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-race-riot-of-1964

https://crdl.usg.edu/events/ny_race_riots

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/harlem-race-riot-1964/

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/inside-harlem-uprising-1964

Angry Racist Southerners Form Dixicrat Party To Oppose President Truman

 

Southern Democrats Convention At The Birmingham Municipal Auditorium.
Photograph by Marion Johnson, the Atlanta Constitution

July 14-17, 1948, President Harry Truman took to the podium at the National Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia and delivered a speech that marked a sea change in the Democratic Party and set a direction for the future. Truman spoke passionately about Civil Rights and the need to make America a nation of real equality.

The Democrats of the South didn’t like it. They didn’t like the inclusion of a party plank calling for Civil Rights changes. They had met on their own to decide to walk out of the convention during the state roll call to make their point.

So, on July 14 when the party began delegate roll call most of the Alabama delegation turned and walked off the floor. When the roll call reached M, Mississippi delegates all walked out. These were people committed to keeping segregation in place and enforcing Jim Crow.

This angered some of the high party bosses who were already concerned that Truman was vulnerable. These men saw little hope in a win for Truman without the Southern states in the pocket as they had been for decades.

Regardless, the party had taken a courageous step forward. On the other hand, the Southern states were determined to create something that would protect their way of life and something that in the 1960s would transfer the voting bloc to the Republicans in the “Southern Strategy”

Led by South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond and Arkansas Governor Benjamin Travis Laney these Democrats decided to call themselves the “States Rights Party” They met for their convention on July 17 in Birmingham, Alabama. While they did not identify as a real third party the intention was to draw enough votes from Truman and Republican nominee Thomas Dewey into through the election into the House of Representatives. Calling themselves “Dixiecrats” the breakaway Southerners nominated Thurmond as their presidential candidate and Mississippi governor Fielding L. Wright.

6,000 registered Democrats came to Birmingham to endorse the new segregationist party. This was the main plank of the party and their hope was by sending the election into the House they would be able to negotiate to support whichever candidate agreed to the continuance of segregation.

Somewhat surprised by the turnout for their quickly put-together convention in Birmingham, the party held another convention in Oklahoma City on August 14. At this convention, they adopted a very racist platform:

“We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, and the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home rule, local self-government, and a minimum interference with individual rights.”

This platform and campaigns targeting both Truman and Dewey as authoritarians who wanted to end the Southern way of life. Thurmond was able to win four states and 39 electoral votes. The Dixiecrat ticket won South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. These upset wins did take votes from Truman in what would prove to be one of the closest presidential elections in history. Though he still won he wasn’t as powerful in the party as most sitting presidents are and so when the party drifted back some on Civil Rights, he wasn’t able to stop them, still even with the moral high ground taken from him Truman still ended segregation in the military and set the tone for the next 20 years.

 

Sources:

https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/1948_States_Rights_Democratic_Party_convention

https://data.philly.com/conventions/1948-d.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1948-democratic-convention-878284/