From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo

A suburban Detroit housewife and part-time student at Wayne State University, Viola Liuzzo joined the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965. Driving along a deserted highway with a young black man the night of the march, she was shot and killed, becoming, briefly, a martyr of the civil rights movement before questions about her character and motives clouded her memory. What kind of a mother would leave young children and run the risk of violence in the South? What was she doing alone in her car with a black man? Through her research, freelance writer Stanton found reason to believe that the accusations against Liuzzo were trumped up by the FBI to divert attention from the agency's own dubious role in Liuzzo's murder. A paid FBI informer was in the car that forced Liuzzo off the road, and he was later accused of being the shooter as well. Stanton traces her interest in Liuzzo back to the night of the murder, when the author was in high school. She compares her life with Liuzzo's, chronicling both women's dissatisfaction with traditional female roles. In re-creating her subject's life, Stanton relies on media coverage and personal interviews, and while her speculations on Liuzzo's thoughts and the FBI's role in the murder are not verifiable, the author provides an all-too-likely scenario for a government conspiracy. In writing about Liuzzo's activism, Stanton herself has made an important contribution to civil rights history. 23 illustrations not seen by PW. (Oct.)