DETROIT (AP) — Wayne State University has honored a former student and Detroit mother fatally shot by Klansmen while shuttling demonstrators after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
An honorary doctor of laws degree was awarded last Friday to Viola Gregg Liuzzo for her contributions to society.
It’s the first posthumous honorary degree in the 145-year-old school’s history. Wayne State also dedicated a plaque in her name.
Four of Liuzzo’s five children attended the ceremony.
Liuzzo was a 39-year-old nursing student when she drove to Alabama to help in the civil rights movement.
She was struck in the head by shots fired from a passing car. Her black passenger, 19-year-old Leroy Moton, was wounded.
Three Ku Klux Klan members were convicted of federal charges in Liuzzo’s death.
- Posted April 15, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
WSU honors slain civil rights activist with honorary degree
headlines Macomb
- Lawyer publishes first of three children’s books
- MDHHS to issue maternal health quality payments to hospitals
- Charges amended on two Warren police officers
- No charges yet in weekend crash that killed two siblings at Michigan birthday party
- Justice Dept. launches updated voting rights and elections website
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case