By, Crystal S. Kauffman, Contributing Writer

If you look in a history book, you will never find the name Viola Liuzzo as a martyr for civil rights. However, in 1965, she became an unknown martyr in the hearts of many civil rights activists. She was shot by self-proclaimed KKK members in Selma, Mississippi, during a civil rights march on March 25, 1965. Now, there is a memorial on the spot that she died, yet no one mentions her name in the history books. According to Mr. Simkin, she was a 36 year old mother of five kids, who wanted to make a difference in the fight for civil rights.

She was married to a man named Anthony J. Liuzzo, who was very supportive of his wife's ambitions. Viola graduated from "Wayne State University" and was pursuing a career as a "medical lab technician" (Simkin) After she watched 'Bloody Sunday' unfold on television in Selma, Alabama. She empathized with the pain and torment of those who fought for the right to vote.

So she decided to stand up and become a civil rights activist, who helped out with driving people to the marches. They followed Martin Luther King and 25,000 others in a march from Selma to Montgomery. Once getting involved, she witnessed the brutality of other Americans in the south.

As a white woman, she could have decided that it was too dangerous to go, but she was also a trained nurse who felt she may be able help. Then, on the night of March 25, 1965, she was shot in the head twice by three KKK members from Birmingham. Viola was brutally killed, while driving some of the protesters home. However, according the FBI, a man named Leroy Moton was driving and became an eye witness to her murder. Before long, three men were arrested and charged with violating Viola Liuzzo civil rights. According to the FBI, an undercover agent named Carl Rowe was also riding with the KKK members that night.

These self-proclaimed KKK members were Collie Wilkins", "William Eaton", and "Eugene Thomas" (FBI, 2006). They were found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison. Fortunately, the undercover FBI agent Carl Rowe was compelled "testified against them" (Simkin) in court. In an attempt to discredit Viola, some vicious rumors alleged that she had abandoned her children and husband for a black man's affection.

According to Simkin, these damaging rumors, were believed to have been started by the FBI. Sadly, she tried to stand up for the civil rights of others, but was ultimately was denied her own civil rights.. How come Americans are not taught about her courageous decision to stand up, which ultimately cost her own life? Why did the undercover FBI agent choose not to protect her and her companions? What made them spread this vicious rumor about a woman, who chose to stand up for others and their right to be a free American?

References:

Simkin, John (1997) Spartacus Educational: Viola Liuzzo

Retrieved on the World Wide Web on June 13, 2007

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAliuzzo.htm

Federal Bureau of Investigations (2006) Viola Liuzzo Murder

Retrieved on the World Wide Web on June 13, 2007

http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/liuzzo.htm

by Dennis Townsend, Contributing Writer

In 1963 the presidential political campaign was finally taking shape, and the Republicans had Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller as their leading candidates,and President John Kennedy was wondering what could Democrats offer the average voter in the upcoming elections. “What can we do to make them decide to vote for us? We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil. He’s not unprosperous, but he’s not very prosperous, and the people who really are well-off hate our guts.” That same statement can be made today by the odds on favorite and the number one Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton. Since the redistricting of the country by the Republicans to gain a voter advantage, the world of demographics really comes into play and will play an important part in the election. While some say that the Democrats have some advantages because three of the four biggest states have growing Hispanic populations, it will never trump the slight of hand that the GOP is so famous for and especially now that they are in “desperation” mode. With that said, there are still some noteworthy problems that lay ahead for Hillary and the Democrats run to the top.

The GOP can always count on the south to be forever loyal to the Republican Party just as you can just about count on the African-American voters being equally dedicated to the Democratic Party. While that may be the genuine Democratic voters creed, there are politicians in the party who are without honor, who claim to be a loyal Democrat, but as we saw right before the mid-terms last year, there were some wishy-washy Democratic politicians who threw their own president under the bus in lieu of popularity votes from the “dark side.” And with voter turnout at an all time low for the mid-terms, the Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate. Even though the south lost the Civil War, some southerners still hold on to beliefs that’s been handed down through the generations.They still speak a language that the Democrats don’t understand, but is well known and understood clearly by the southern politician. Being forever optimistic, the Democrats have high hopes of returning to power in Texas, the land of Rick Perry, which will be a daunting task to say the least. Did you know that among all those cattle and oil wells in Texas, there are thousands of poor, isolated people starving to death.  They are out in rural areas, so distant that some have to travel over 20 miles to food pantries, and making these people travel that same distance to get identification cards or drivers licenses in order to satisfy the paranoid Republican requirements to vote is unbelievable. Voting is suppose to be easy and idiot-proof and not laced with a bunch of unnecessary legal mumbo-jumbo as to why you need a picture I.D. to vote. The Republicans claim that voting oversight, theirs, is needed because there is wide spread voter fraud taking place goes right in the same category with the belief that the world is flat.

Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and surprisingly, West Virginia, who identified itself as a southern state when 62 percent of the state voted for Mitt Romney during the last presidential election, make up 41 electoral votes, all of which went to Romney. Texas itself has 38 electoral votes, hardly a reason for the GOP to really worry about losing it. Another reason that the Republicans are feeling rather cock-sure of themselves leading up to the 2016 elections is that someone in their party apparently had a rare light bulb moment and declared that since the black unemployment rate was so high, there was no incentive for African-Americans to get out and vote like they did for Barack Obama. They are under the misguided impression that blacks somehow feel resentment that Obama didn’t get them their “40 acres and a mule”, and have uniformly decided voting was a waste of time then and will be in 2016. Wrong answer!  My take on that kind of thinking is that what they are really saying is that African-Americans are so disenchanted with the system, that they will go back to being lazy non-voters who have no desire to get involved with the social  issues that are so important in the inner cities. It seems to me that making sure a Republican doesn’t get in the White House to make more draconian budget cuts to those same social programs is all the incentive the poor, black or white, needs to get out and vote. It's plain to me that the Republicans are betting their whole party's future on wishful thinking. Do they have a chance of getting into the White House, of course they do, after all, they have more than a dozen candidates who say they are better than the other Republican. It will be interesting to see who emerges as the front runner when the dust settles at the Republican jamboree in Cleveland. One things for sure, there will be world record backstabbing and name-calling, but in the end, they'll be holding hands, and singing kumbaya and you can take that to the bank.

DLTPONCHO33