The March and the Murder – 50th Anniversary of the death of Viola Luizzo on March 26 Historian Dr. Gary May is available to discuss the 50th anniversary of the death of Viola Luizzo, murdered by a carload of Ku Klux Klansmen following Dr. Martin Luther King’s Voting Rights March. She was the only white woman to lose her life in the civil life movement
What makes her murder unique is that one of the Klansmen was the FBI’s top informant, Gary Thomas Rowe. Many think that he fired the shot that killed her and the FBI covered it up.
Rowe’s story suggests that informants can actually create the very tragedies they are supposed to prevent and shows how dangerous it is to plant unreliable citizens inside terrorist groups. To protect their cover, they must commit criminal acts – and out government becomes their accomplices.
The use of informant’s remains a standard police practice today and is widely used across the world in the fight against organized crime and terrorism.
As we honor Mrs. Liuzzo’s life, we should also re-examine the role of informants – they often create more problems than they are worth.
Gary May specializes in American political, diplomatic, and social history since 1945 and teaches the subject at The University of Delaware.
He is the author of The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo (2005)
http://www.history.udel.edu/garymay/fac-bio/gary-may/
To arrange an interview contact [email protected] or tel: 302 766 5103
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