If Not For You

As I've mentioned before, this year marks 40 years since 1968, which was an extraordinarily eventful year in this country's history. Next week, as a matter of fact, will be the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is the anniversary of an important event. But, while the media is obsessing over Barack Obama's words about race relations in America and Hillary Clinton is busy trying to explain the gap between her memories of her White House experiences and the reality as reflected in the hard-copy records, no one has paid any attention to it.

But I will.

It was 43 years ago today that members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered a Southern-raised mother of five from Detroit named Viola Liuzzo. She was 39 years old and she was gunned down in Alabama while transporting civil rights marchers who participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches, which was the culmination of the voting rights movement in the United States.

The Klan's vehicle chased Liuzzo's car for 20 miles before finally pulling up next to it. One of the occupants fired twice at Liuzzo, striking her in the head and killing her instantly.

Although an FBI informant was riding in the Klan vehicle, Liuzzo was vilifed in death by the FBI, the object of a smear campaign.

Nevertheless, the informant provided vital information that quickly led to the arrests of the Klan vehicle's occupants. President Lyndon Johnson went on national television to personally announce the news.

There are many people -- civil rights activists as well as Liuzzo's own children -- who believe that Liuzzo's sacrifice was what really made it possible for the 1965 Voting Rights Act to become law. The Voting Rights Act removed barriers to voting, including literacy tests and poll taxes. Without it, neither Obama nor Clinton might be in position to be nominated for president today.

I don't know if Johnson also believed that Liuzzo's death made the passage of the Voting Rights Act a reality. But I know that he believed passage of the act was crucial.

Less than two weeks before Liuzzo's murder, when Johnson himself introduced the Voting Rights Act to Congress, the president said, "There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong -- deadly wrong -- to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states' rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights."

The "struggle for human rights" goes on.

Forty-three years ago, Viola Liuzzo made her contribution to the cause. In blood.

Those who do not exercise the hard-earned right to vote make a mockery of her sacrifice and the sacrifices of others.