Civil Rights Icon Viola Liuzzo

The Rochester-Avon Historical Society (RAHS) presents, “Civil Rights Icon Viola Luizzo” with Michael Placco, professor of history at Macomb Community College, on Thursday, March 5 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Rochester Hills Public Library’s Multipurpose Room.

Placco returns to RAHS to discuss the extraordinary life of his aunt and Civil Rights activist Viola Luizzo, a young wife and mother who traveled from Detroit to Selma, AL, to participate in the successful Selma to Montgomery marches. While driving back from taking fellow activists to the Montgomery airport, Luizzo was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. She was thirty-nine years old.

“The Rochester-Avon Historical Society and other similar agencies help to put news and information into context, separate fact from fiction, and offer lessons in how history repeats itself,” said Tiffany Dziurman, president of the Rochester-Avon Historical Society. “To that end, we continually reach out to local universities and colleges for presentation topics that have the potential to discuss how the past effects our current events. The Rochester-Avon Historical Society will continue to share stories that provoke thought and conversation.”

The meeting is free and open to the public.