Editorials & Other Articles

pamela

(3,469 posts) Mon Mar 9, 2015, 09:21 PM Mar 2015

WSU to honor civil rights martyr Liuzzo with degree

"But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship, that willingness of a 26 year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five, to decide they loved this country so much that they'd risk everything to realize its promise."-President Obama 3/7/2015

Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe cried when she got the call from Wayne State University telling her that her mother, the late Viola Gregg Liuzzo, would be granted an honorary doctor of laws.

Then Kim Trent, who called on behalf of the school, cried.

Liuzzo, a Detroit mother of five, was murdered by Ku Klux Klan night riders on March 25, 1965, as she drove her Oldsmobile on a highway near Selma, Alabama. Liuzzo, 39, was a student at Wayne State and the wife of Teamsters business agent Anthony Liuzzo.

The degree from Wayne State, the first time the university has bestowed one posthumously, will be the highlight of three days of honors, April 10-12, that are pegged to Liuzzo's April 11 birthday (she would have been 90).

[link:http://www.detroitnews.com/story/life/2015/02/26/viola-liuzzo-civil-rights-murder-selma-alabama-wayne-state-university-degree/24097435/|

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WSU to honor civil rights martyr Liuzzo with degree (Original Post) pamela Mar 2015 OP

yep - great news. Thanks for posting rurallib Mar 2015 #1

I like that they're doing it on her birthday. pamela Mar 2015 #2

rurallib

(62,432 posts)

1. yep - great news. Thanks for posting

Reply to pamela (Original post)

Mon Mar 9, 2015, 09:47 PM

Mar 2015

and quite timely

pamela

(3,469 posts)

2. I like that they're doing it on her birthday.

Reply to rurallib (Reply #1)

Tue Mar 10, 2015, 02:04 AM

Mar 2015

I found this when I was looking to see if anyone was doing anything to commemorate her this month on the 50th anniversary of her murder. I thought at first that this was going to take place on the anniversary but it will be on, what would have been, her 90th birthday.

I wish someone would do a good movie about her life. I think she was a fascinating woman, especially considering the times she lived in. I don't think she has gotten the recognition she deserved. Hoover's smear campaign contributed to that. When Obama mentioned her the other day, not by name but by description, I was so happy he acknowledged her and her sacrifice.

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