Announces Arrests in Slaying: With FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at his side, President Lyndon Johnson announces from the White House that four Ku Klux Klan members have been arrested in Alabama for conspiracy in the slaying of a Detroit mother of five. Johnson paid tribute to FBI agents for the arrests.

Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo (1925-1965) was a Unitarian Universalist Civil Rights activist from Michigan. In March 1965, Liuzzo--then a housewife and mother of five with a history of local activism--heeded the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. and traveled from Detroit, Michigan, to Selma, Alabama in the wake of the Bloody Sunday attempt at marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Liuzzo participated in the successful Selma to Montgomery marches and helped with coordination and logistics. Driving back from shuttling fellow activists to the Montgomery airport, she was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Liuzzo was 39 years old. Her funeral was held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit on March 30, with many prominent members of both the Civil Rights Movement and government there to pay their respects. Included in this group were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins; Congress on Racial Equality national leader James Farmer; Michigan Lieutenant Governor William G. Milliken; Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa; and United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther. Liuzzo was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan. Less than two weeks after her death, a charred cross was found in front of four Detroit homes, including the Liuzzo residence.

Associated Press ID #6503261338

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: typewritten title, date stamps and newspaper caption affixed.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Arrest
• Civil Rights Movements
• Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr.
• Eugene Thomas
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Hate
• Hate crimes
• Injustice
• J. Edgar Hoover
• Ku Klux Klan
• Lyndon Johnson
• Lyndon Johnson
• Murder
• Press Conferences
• Racial Discrimination
• Selma to Montgomery March
• Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo
• Voting Rights
• Washington DC
• White House
• William Eaton

• Sheet Dimensions: 8 1/8 x 10 in. (20.64 x 25.4 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin
• Image Dimensions: 6 15/16 x 9 11/16 in. (17.62 x 24.61 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin