DETROIT – The effort to revitalize the Viola Liuzzo Park in Detroit will get a major boost on Saturday when state Rep. Leslie Love (D-Detroit) will present a $125,000 check to the Greening of Detroit, who is working with the Viola Luizzo Park Association to rejuvenate the park. The check will be presented at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Viola Liuzzo Park, located at the corner of Trojan Avenue and Forrer Street, in Detroit.
“Viola Liuzzo is a Detroit hero, and it is only fitting that we revitalize the park intended to honor her,” Rep. Love said. “Liuzzo understood the importance of community and neighbors working together, and I can’t help but believe that she would be proud of this effort – just as I am proud to support it. I look forward to the restoration of Viola Liuzzo Park as a vital, vibrant part of our community.”
Liuzzo, a Detroit resident, took part in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march to Selma, Ala., in 1965, but was murdered just hours later. Though no one was convicted for her murder, it is believed that a member or members of the Ku Klux Klan killed her, and the Klan harassed and terrorized her family in Detroit after her death. The city of Detroit created the park in her honor in the 1970s.
“Viola Liuzzo made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom, and as Detroiters, we should all be proud of her legacy,” Love said. “I’m thrilled to be part of the effort to make the park named on her honor worthy of her name.”