Liuzzo, Viola 1926-1965

CIVIL RIGHTS WORKER

A March of Hope.

In the spring of 1965 the Nobel Peace Prize winner and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. led a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state's capital of Montgomery. The avowed purpose was to present Alabama governor George Wallace with a petition protesting voting discrimination in the state. The main purpose was to draw attention to the plight of blacks in the segregated South. On 21 March thousands of participants began the fifty-mile trek to the capital. While there were some hecklers, there was little serious harassment of the marchers. The federal government had mobilized a small army to prevent any violence. Over one thousand military police were present as well as nearly two thousand federalized Alabama National Guardsmen, supplemented by federal marshals and FBI agents. Precautions even extended to having demolition experts search the bridges in the protestors' path.

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