“The next Selma procession, on March 21, was celebratory—thousands of singing marchers, ranks of glamorous celebrities in the fore, marching all the way through to Montgomery. That night one of the white marchers, a Detroit mother of five named Viola Liuzzo was shot to death.”
“As they were driving along Route 80, a car tried to force them off the road. A car with four Klan members then pulled up alongside Liuzzo’s car and shot directly at her, hitting her twice in the head, killing her instantly.”
“The martyr only seemed to intensify the nation’s moral resolve. Lyndon Johnson asked, “Should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.” He signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6, under the Capitol dome.
People cried. The Negro’s cause was America’s cause. Who could argue with that?”
Five nights later, on August 11th, the riots in Watts begin. My older brother is mobilized in the National Guard and sent. He never talks to me about it.
