Latest news with #Liuzzo
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Remembering Detroit civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo 60 years after her assassination
The Brief Viola Liuzzo traveled to Alabama from Detroit to march for voting rights in 1965. On March 25, 1965, she was shot and killed by the KKK while driving a young Black man to Montgomery. Decades later, her efforts continue to inspire those fighting for justice and equality. DETROIT (FOX 2) - March 25 marked 60 years since Ku Klux Klan members murdered a white civil rights activist who traveled to Alabama from Detroit for a voting rights march. Viola Liuzzo, 39, a mother of five, was driving a young Black man to Montgomery in 1965 when KKK members shot and killed her. Her death sparked outrage across the nation, a fact echoed by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. immediately following the murder. "She was an innocent speaking truth to power woman who happened to be white, who committed her life to fighting for social justice and freedom and democracy," said Dr. Wendell Anthony, the leader of Detroit's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Before her death, Liuzzo was a member of Detroit's NAACP chapter as she fought for the rights of all people. Several months after she was killed, the Voting Rights of 1965, which prevents racial discrimination in voting, was signed by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. Decades after Liuzzo was murdered while fighting for justice, her actions and legacy continue to inspire others. "She paid the ultimate price, and if she did what she did, it really compels us to do what we must do," Antony said. "Everybody can do something. You cannot sit this out. Elections have consequences, but the power of the people is much greater than the people who have power."
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Yahoo
On This Day, March 25: Saudi King Faisal assassinated
March 25 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1807, the English Parliament abolished the slave trade. In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City killed 146 people, mostly female immigrant workers. The tragedy led to the eventual enactment of many state and national workplace safety laws. In 1947, a mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., killed 111 men, most of them asphyxiated by gas. In 1954, the Radio Corporation of America began commercial production of color television sets. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and West Germany signed a treaty in Rome establishing the European Economic Community, also known as the common market. In 1965, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo of Detroit, 39, was killed on a road near Selma, Ala. Three Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted of violating Liuzzo's civil rights, but not for murder. In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death at his palace in Riyadh by a "mentally deranged" nephew who was later executed. In 1990, an arson fire swept an overcrowded social club, the Happy Land, in the Bronx borough of New York City, killing 87 people. Cuban refugee Julio Gonzalez, the arsonist -- whose former girlfriend worked at the club and survived the fire -- was convicted on multiple counts of arson and murder. He died in prison in September 2016. In 1994, U.S. forces completed a withdrawal from Mogadishu, Somalia, except for a small number of soldiers left behind to provide support for U.N. peacekeepers. In 2006, an estimated 500,000 people protested in Los Angeles against U.S. House-approved bill that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally. The legislation, which also led to protests in other cities during this period, did not pass in the Senate. In 2010, an explosion sank a South Korean warship on patrol in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors. North Korea denied accusations it had torpedoed the ship. In 2022, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died of a drug overdose in Bogatá, Colombia, shortly before the band were scheduled to perform. He was 50 years old. In 2024, federal agents raided the Los Angeles and Miami homes of musician Sean "Diddy" Combs as part of a sex trafficking investigation.
