‘What Kind Of People Can They Be?—Husband

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30710, 27 March 1965, Page 15

‘What Kind Of People Can They Be?—Husband

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

DETROIT, March 26.

The husband of the civil rights worker shot to death in Alabama today wept openly and said: “The dirty rats, the dirty rats. What kind of people can be living down there?”

The man, Mr Anthony Liuzzo, a 51-year-old union official, was speaking to reporters minutes after hearing of his wife’s death. “There were 25,000 people down there and she had to be the one. My God, it’s unbelievable," Mr Liuzzo said. He described his wife as a “champion of the people.” “She was the biggest hearted woman you ever saw in your life,” he said. Mrs Liuzzo, a laboratory assistant and part-time student

at a Michigan University, had gone to Selma last week. “I tried to discourage her,” Mr Liuzzo said, “but she told me four or five of her friends were going down there and 1 „ couldn't stop her. They took s off ” B Mr Liuzzo talked to report- ’■ ers in his home in a pleasant neighbourhood in northa west Detroit. It was 1 a.m., but all the I- lights were on. There were a children crying: “They killed mom. They ;- killed mom.” t Friends and relatives were

there to comfort the stricken family. Mr Liuzzo was chain smoking cigarettes and trying to hold himself together. He added: “These people fought a civil war over 100 years ago and they’re still fighting it. What kind of people can they be?”