Abayomi Azikiwe, April 13, 2026
On Sat. April 11, 2026, more than 100 people gathered at the corner of Pembroke and Mansfield on the northwest side of Detroit for a ceremony to rename a portion of a street after Mrs. Viola Liuzzo who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama in March 1965.
Liuzzo was a resident of Detroit who became involved in the struggle for civil rights as a student at Wayne State University and as a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church located near the campus.
During March 1965, she, like millions of others in the United States and internationally, were deeply affected by the brutality inflicted upon African Americans and their allies who were demonstrating for voting rights in Selma and other areas of the state.
The Alabama State Troopers along with Dallas County mounted police halted the first attempt to march from Selma to the capital of Montgomery on Sun. March 7. The marchers were beaten and gassed by law-enforcement resulting in dozens of injuries.
Two days later, after a national call was issued by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) on Tues. March 9, a second attempt to march was made. The march was stopped by law-enforcement agents and then it turned around at the aegis of SCLC heading back to the church where the movement was based.
Finally, by March 21, after weeks of political and legal challenges, the march was allowed to take place under the protection of federalized Alabama National Guard units. Thousands joined the five-day demonstration which arrived in Montgomery on March 25.
Liuzzo traveled to Alabama with others from Michigan some of whom had been mobilized by the Detroit Unitarian Universalist Church, where she had joined the previous year.
After the march, Liuzzo was assisting in transporting marchers back to their homes. She was travelling with 19-year-old African American activist, Leroy Moten.
A carload of KKK members, which included a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FB) informant, Gary Thomas Rowe, opened fire on the 1963 Oldsmobile killing Luizzo. Moten played dead while Klan members examined the vehicle after the shooting.
The killing, like those of Jimmy Lee Jackson of Marion, Alabama and Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister, sent shockwaves through the U.S. Luizzo was eulogized at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, where she was also a member.
Her funeral was attended by leading civil rights and labor leaders including Dr. King, John Lewis, then Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Teamster President James Hoffa and UAW President Walter Reuther.
The street renaming ceremony on April 11 was held on the grounds of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church located on Pembroke and Mansfield.
This event continues the recognition of Viola Liuzzo who was awarded a posthumous doctoral degree in 2015 by WSU and the renaming of a neighborhood playground and later park in her honor.
Several politicians attended the renaming ceremony including Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, City Council member Calloway and Michigan Secretary of State Joselyn Benson.
(Photographs by Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan-African News Wire)
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