About Mary
MARY was born in Detroit, Michigan, the second of Viola Liuzzo’s five children. Mary’s life and the lives of her siblings were dramatically changed in March of 1965. Their mother answered Dr. Martin Luther King’s plea to Americans to come to Alabama and participate in the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery. The march was completed without incident, and the 25,000 foot soldiers celebrated this victory for their cause.
Later that night, as Viola and a black coworker were transporting marchers back to Selma, a car began to follow her. A chase ensued, and the car, full of KKK klansmen, overtook her car and shot Viola twice in the head, killing her. Viola was 39; her children were: Penny, 18; Tommy, 14; Tony, 10; Sally, 6; and Mary, 17.
In 1999, Mary was approached by an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker. She asked Mary to follow her mother’s footsteps from Detroit to Selma and on to Montgomery. It was in those days that Mary spoke with the men and women who were beaten on Bloody Sunday. They were the people her mother had stayed with while she was there, the people who were with her mother on that last day of her life. It was the recollections of Viola’s fellow workers that led Mary to remember all her mother had taught her, all her mother had lived and died for. It gave Mary her voice that had been long silenced by fear and prejudice. She took up her mother’s legacy and decided to no longer be silent. The documentary was released in 2004, and Mary traveled to film festivals across the country, speaking to thousands of people and answering their questions, as frightening as some were, truthfully, despite her fear.
After the film promotion was over, Mary realized that the short video clips shown on TV do not tell the whole story of the civil rights struggle. She became devoted to finding, archiving, and passing on these stories—stories that are born from her conversations and friendships with the people who were there, from the project residents where her mother stayed to the pioneers and icons of the movement.
In 2005, Mrs. Lilleboe was invited to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Selma Marches by joining Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery’s Civil Rights Heritage Tour. Mrs. Lowery is the Founder of The SCLC WOMEN, Inc. organization. Her husband, Dr. Joseph Lowery, co-founded the SCLC with Dr. King during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. Lowery wants people to know that the women were there and are here. The tour participants join the Selma Jubilee and Bridge Crossing. Mary explained that as she crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the first time in 2005, she looked at Dr. and Mrs. Lowery and at all the other selfless people who had been walking this walk for forty years. She was stunned by the fact that for 40 years, they had been working and wondered what she had contributed. This was a turning point for her, and she committed to her mother’s legacy and has returned every year to join the tour and cross the bridge.
At home in Oregon, Mary is active in voter registration and education, primarily in the schools. One of her favorite projects is to register high school students who will turn 18 prior to upcoming elections.
In 2010, Mary had the honor of joining the board of The Jubilee and Bridge Crossing, Inc. One of her aims is to bring greater awareness of the history of The Civil Rights Movement and related events to the Western United States and the rest of the world.
