DETROIT – Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit civil rights icon, was honored this weekend with the unveiling of a secondary street in her name. The street is near Pembroke Academy at Pembroke and Mansfield on the city’s west side.
It comes over 60 years after the then 39-year-old was killed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Now, her family is keeping her story alive and speaking one-on-one with Local 4.
Her incredible story still lives on in 2026, but it started over a century ago.
“She was born in Tennessee near Chattanooga and her father, later, they moved up to Pennsylvania,” Anthe Liuzzo, Viola Liuzzo’s daughter in law, said.
As a young adult, Viola Liuzzo moved up north to Detroit. That’s where she built a life and a family.
“When the last one was in first grade, that’s when she wanted to go back to nursing school, so she went to Wayne State,” Anthe Liuzzo said.
Viola Liuzzo was also involved with her kids’ schools, especially frustrated when many had not integrated.
Detroit quickly became her home. In 1965, she was 39 years old and a mom to five kids, striving to be a public health nurse.
“She heard Dr. King say, ‘Anyone who can get down here, who can march with us, please do so,’ and she just felt it,” Liuzzo said.
Viola Liuzzo traveled to Selma and joined the historic march.
After the march, and working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s transportation service, she helped ferry marchers between Selma and Montgomery.
“The Klan’s car pulled up and shot her, disorienting her in her car. She veered off and just went into a field and they went up to her and shot her twice – assassinated basically,” Anthe Liuzzo said.
Although her life may have ended there, her family has helped her legacy live on in the city of Detroit and beyond.
Other people have worked to honor her too – like artist Arlan Feiles. He wrote an original song, titled, “Viola,” to honor her legacy.
It’s keeping the legacy alive that makes this unveiling mean so much to her family.
“Talk to us a little bit about what the city of Detroit means to you all as a family and what it meant to Viola,” Local 4 said.
“This would not have gotten done in many other cities. Detroit gets it done,” Anthe Liuzzo said.