{"id":1307,"date":"2015-04-08T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T04:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:31","slug":"viola-liuzzo-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/04\/08\/viola-liuzzo-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Viola Liuzzo Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday April 8 – \u00a0Color Blind Angel,\u00a0\u201cyou laid your young life down\u201d \u00a0(blues singer Robin Rogers –\u00a0<\/strong>✝<\/strong>\u00a0Dec 19.2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post is unusual.\u00a0 Last Sunday\u2019s Detroit Free Press article about Viola Liuzzo and the park named for her touched several months of conversations with Julie Hamilton (Personal Counseling\/Wellness Coordinator UDM School of Dentistry) about the Park.\u00a0 We talked again Monday and decided to dedicate today\u2019s post to Viola and the park. \u00a0http:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/life\/2015\/04\/04\/metro-detroiters-unite-honor-viola-liuzzo\/25300385\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Viola Liuzzo\u2019s park is a story close to the heart of Detroit, the city, and of the university.\u00a0 As Detroiter\u00a0Libbie Rutherford says:\u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026when you have more eyes on a park and people are using it, the crime rate goes down.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Parks matter. \u00a0Their names hold stories that tell the courage and grace of people who have lived here before us.<\/p>\n

Detroit honors itself by setting aside some days this week to hold Viola, this amazing brave woman, up into the light. \u00a0I drove west on 7 Mile to Greenfield yesterday and found my way to the Viola Liuzzo park. \u00a0It\u2019s small, as parks go, and can still could use some new\u00a0equipment, but is cared about: \u00a0a place in its neighborhood.<\/p>\n

We hope to tease you into reading the free press article from Sunday and listening to the blues singer Robin Rogers\u2019 5 minute ballad for Viola; Non-blues fans will probably be startled by RR\u2019s classic grace and power. \u00a0By the end of her 5 minutes, you may grieve, as I do, that this citizen of Detroit died too young riddled with bullets a half century ago. \u00a0The song Rogers wrote and sings,\u00a0\u201cColor Blind Angel,\u201d is just below and is our post.<\/p>\n

I also asked Julie Hamilton to give us background about all this in a postscript.<\/p>\n

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john st sj<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x1f9H6C4cFU<\/a>\u00a0 (robin rogers: \u00a05:24 minutes)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Color Blind Angel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Viola, Viola, you laid your young life down.
\nFrom Selma to heaven, 3 Ks took you out.
\nColor blind angel battled bigotry.
\nViola, Viola lives on in history.<\/p>\n

Verse 1:
\nLeft your home in the winterland, southbound with a dream.
\nEdmund Pettis bridge, violence on the screen.
\nFreedom summer of ’65 is where you had to be,
\nStand up for your fellow man, erase hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

(Chorus)<\/p>\n

Verse 2:
\nMarch 25, Alabam, along a lonesome road,
\nShots rang out on a hate-filled night, now the world would know:
\nMotor City mother, lily-white and sincere,
\nGave her life for the civil rights, fought against the fear.<\/p>\n

(Chorus)<\/p>\n

Verse 3:
\nWalkin’ for the right to vote seems old-fashioned now,
\nMartin’s vision reigns supreme, all colors can be proud.
\nThe legacy of all that fought goes on eternally.
\nWomen and men from walks of life live on in history.<\/p>\n

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Historical Background for this week in northwest Detroit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who was Viola:<\/strong> Viola Liuzzo was a 39 year old mother of five living on Detroit\u2019s west side when in 1965 she watched news reports of attacks on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.\u00a0\u00a0Soon after, she heard the call from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u00a0to come to Selma and join the march. Something happened in Viola\u00a0as she listened. \u00a0She answer Dr. King and\u00a0went to Selma. As a member of the NAACP, she knew the risk. \u00a0She asked her best friend, Sarah Evans, a black woman, to watch over her children if something happened to her while in Selma.<\/p>\n

Five hours after the successful March on Selma, Viola Liuzzo was killed by KKK members, one of whom was an FBI informant. She was shot to death while giving rides to other civil rights workers who had completed the historic march. Her family\u2019s devastation was further traumatized when crosses began to be burned in their front yard, death threats arrived, and stories began to emerge in the press defaming their mother\u2019s character and questioning her stability. They later learned these stories came from FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover\u2019s office. For over two years they were forced to have armed guards at the front and back doors of their home. Viola was one white woman who died during the civil rights movement. No one was ever convicted in her murder.<\/p>\n

Why we were moved by Viola: <\/strong>My friend, Colette Mezza, and I had both heard the story of Viola on WDET\/NPR two years ago. We were touched by how deeply committed to her values she was, and how she was willing to risk everything for her fellow citizens.\u00a0 The decision to leave her children and drive to Selma, has to this day triggered strong reactions, questioning why she would do such a thing. To hear her children today explain it\u2026she wanted to make the world better for them. She ended up doing just that.\u00a0 A few months after her ultimate sacrifice, the Voters Rights Act was passed.<\/p>\n

The Viola Liuzzo Park: <\/strong>The Viola Liuzzo Park is located in the area of Greenfield and Eight Mile Road. It was named in honor of Viola in the early 1970\u2019s. Over the years, it has become tired and dilapidated, like many residential areas of Detroit. \u00a0People living nearby have been taking care of the park and joined us, along with members of the Gospel Tabernacle Church on Greenfield (at Vassar), in developing plans to restore it.\u00a0 We have been quietly meeting in the basement of the church, and over the months many people have stopped by to join the effort, including Dorothy Aldridge, a former member of SNCC. The miracle of this project is that it has become something much more than a park restoration\u2026it has become the culmination of an amazing blend of citizens from many backgrounds and experiences, passionate about Viola\u2019s legacy and the city of Detroit. The restoration of the park is also about healing\u2026 for the Liuzzo family, the neighborhood, the city, and, yes, even the people who have met each other working to restore this brave woman\u2019s park. \u00a0We have used Viola\u2019s values (unity, integrity, respect, compassion, equality, and lightheartedness) to guide us as we move forward.<\/p>\n

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VIOLA LIUZZO WEEK CALENDAR OF EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 4\/10 1:30 p.m. \u2013 Honorary Doctorate award ceremony for Viola Liuzzo. Wayne State University<\/li>\n
  2. 4\/11 1:00 p.m. \u2013 Prof. Michael Placco speaking: Viola Liuzzo: A Passionate Undertaking<\/em> at Cultural Center at Macomb Community College 44575 Garfield Road (at Hall Road), Clinton Twp., MI\u00a0 48038 (call 586.445.7348).<\/li>\n
  3. 4\/11 4:00-6:00 p.m. – Celebration of Friends of Viola Liuzzo Park<\/strong>\n