Viola Liuzzo (1925-1965) was the first white woman killed during the American civil rights movement. Inspired by the efforts of African Americans in the South to obtain the right to vote, she left her home in Detroit and participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama march for black voting rights in 1965. While shuttling marchers in her car, she was shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization determined to keep segregation alive.

Viola Gregg Liuzzo was born on April 11, 1925 in the small town of California, Pennsylvania. Her father, Heber Ernest Gregg, worked in a coal mine until his right hand was blown off in a mining explosion. He left school in the eighth grade, but taught himself to read. Her mother, Eva Wilson Gregg, had a teaching certificate from the University of Pittsburgh, but finding work was not always easy for her. Viola was...