Home of the Brave

March 25, 1965. Viola Liuzzo, a white Detroit woman volunteering in civil-rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, dies on an Alabama highway from shots allegedy fired by marauding Klansmen. After the initial outrage, the rumors began. Vile leaks to the media libeled the victim as irresponsible, lewd, unstable. Her passenger during the shooting, a black youth left strangely uscathed, told differing versions of the incident. Another witness turned out to be an FBI undercover informant, perhaps with something to hide… Four decades later, adult children of Viola Liuzzo live with unhealed wounds of unanswered questions, paranoia and disillusion. One son practically vanishes into the Alabama backwoods, while another broadcasts the anti-government gospel of the Michigan Militia from his trailer. A daughter makes a pilgrimage to the murder site, seeking closure that may never come. Show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy, goes the adage. HOME OF THE BRAVE shows us a heroine in Viola Liuzzo.