Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 October 2004 — Page 18

Page 18 • The Muncie Times • October 7, 2004

continued from page 9. don’t count,” many people heard him say. During the violent months of 1964, when Klansmen fired into black homes and burned dozens of churches, Dahmer sat up at night with a shotgun to protect his family. But he did not stop talking about voting. Members of the White Knights of Mississippi, the state’s most violent Klan group, kept a close eye on Dahmer. When Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers spoke to the local Klavem about putting a stop to civil rights activity, Vernon Dahmer’s name was always mentioned. At one such meeting, according to Klansmen who were there, bowers said Dahmer was a ‘project 3’ or a ‘Project 4’ if possible. In Klan code language, project 3 meant arson; project 4 meant murder. After the 1965 Voting Rights Acts was passed, a new sense of hope

led more and more blacks to the polls. On January 9, 1966, Dahmer made a public offer to collect poll taxes for his neighbors so they wouldmt have to go to the courthouse in town. He said on a radio broadcast that he would even pay the taxes for those who couldmt afford it. That night, Elbe and Vernon Dahmer woke to sound of gunshots and exploding firebombs. Dahmer grabbed a gun and went to his front door. While the fire raged, he stood in his doorway, inhaling the burning fumes and returning gunfire while his family escaped. When it was over, Dahmer’s home and the nearby store were destroyed. Betty, his 10 year old daughter, was hospitalized with severe bums. Dahmer’s lungs were irreparably scorched. From his hospital bed, Vernon Dahmer said, “I’ve been active in trying to get people to register to

vote; people who don’t vote are deadbeats on the state. I figure a man needs to do his own thinking. What happened to us last night can happen to anybody, white or black. At one time I didn’t think so, but I have changed my mind.” He died shortly afterward. Viola Gregg Liuzzo 1925-1965 On the evening of march 25,1965, while civil rights marchers were making their way back to Selma after the climax of their three-day march, a white man who had participated in the beating of James Reeb sat in the Silver Moon Cafe talking to a group of Klansmen. “You boys do your job,” the man said. “I already did mine.” The Kansmen, a select group from a klavem near Birmingham, had been sent to Selma with orders to keep the marchers “under surveillance.” After leaving the cafe, they headed out of

town toward Montgomery. At a stoplight, they noticed a green Oldsmobile with Michigan License plates driven by a white woman with a young black male passenger. That car symbolized for them the two most despised aspects of the civil rights movement; outsiders and race mixing. The Klansmen had found their target. Viola Liuzzo, a 39 year old white mother from Michigan, was still full of energy after three long days of shuttling marchers between Montgomery and Selma six days earlier, she arrived in Selma six days earlier, she had become known as a tireless and cheerful worker. A priest from Chicago who had been on the march said, “Her energy, enthusiasm and compassion were contagious and put many of us to shame.” Mr. Liuzzo sang strains of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall

Overcome,” as she turned her Oldsmobile back toward Montgomery for another carload of marchers. Leroy Moton, a young black man, was riding with her to help drive. Moton was surprised at her nonchalance when they discovered they were being followed by a carload of white men. “These white people are crazy,” Mrs. Liuzzo said, and pressed the accelerator. Soon both cars were racing down the highway at 100 miles per hour. About 20 miles outside Selma, on a lonely stretch of road in Lowndes County, the carload of Klansmen pulled up alongside Liuzzo’s Oldsmobile. Viola Liuzzo turned and looked straight at one of the Klansmen, who sat in the back seat with his arm out the window and a pistol in his hand. He fired twice, sending two .38 caliber bullets crashing through the Oldsmobile window and shattering Viola Liuzzo’s skull.

The Antioch Missionary Baptist Church will be celebrating the 76th Anniversary of the Senior Ushers. Services will be October 17th, Sunday, 2004 at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited. Our guest speaker will be Evangelist Jesusa Pryor

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