Tony Bennett knew famous Detroit civil rights activist killed in Selma march

Tony Bennett is primarily known for his music and his art. What some may not know is that he was also involved in the civil rights movement.

Bennett, who died Friday at age 96, joined a Detroit civil rights activist at the Selma march. That activist would later be killed after taking Bennett to the airport.

Viola Liuzzo, a civil rights activist from Detroit, was shot and killed at the Selma Voting Rights March in 1965 one day after driving Bennett to the airport.

Liuzzo, who drove to Selma by herself from her home, did so after seeing unarmed American citizens brutally beaten by state and local law enforcement.

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According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Liuzzo went to Selma after the attack of 600 demonstrators crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965. State troopers greeted demonstrators with tear gas, billy clubs, and whips.

Martin Luther King Jr. called Americans to gather in Selma for a voting rights march.

The 39-year-old white mother of five children attended the march and was killed on the last day by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Liuzzo was working for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), transporting protestors from Montgomery to Selma.

On March 25, her and Leroy Moton, a 19-year-old black activist from the local area, were headed to Montgomery for the last group of demonstrators. While in Selma, members of the KKK spotted the two of them together and decided to attack them.

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Following their vehicle, KKK members chased them about 20 miles outside of Selma before pulling alongside the car and firing. Liuzzo was instantly shot and killed while Moton escaped after pretending to be dead.

Four suspects were taken into custody for the murder but not one was convicted. Rather, there was an F.B.I.-supported campaign to smear her name and her family was harassed for years after her death. This was due to one of the suspects being a paid undercover FBI informant.

Prior to her death, Liuzzo attended Wayne State University as a part-time student. The nursing school has a scholarship in her name and Liuzzo received a posthumous honorary Doctorate of Law degree.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tony Bennett knew famous Detroit civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo