Two women in different places and from different times in our nation’s history shared the following experiences in common:
- They engaged in nonviolent acts in support of a movement for justice for marginalized and oppressed people.
- They were targeted and shot to death by people enforcing the status quo of injustice.
- People in power in the federal government promoted lies to smear their lives and reputations.
The points outlined above may sound familiar to many of us in light of the tragic death of Renee Good in Minneapolis last week. While peacefully observing violent ICE operations, she was shot to death by an ICE agent as she tried to drive away from the scene. Her final words were addressed to an ICE officer, “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.” The more video evidence that comes out, the clearer it is that she was not trying to hit an officer with her vehicle. Yet immediately after her death, federal officials described her as a “domestic terrorist” and a “professional agitator”who was part of an organized effort by the “radical left.” In contrast, here is how her fellow Presbyterians remembered Renee:
Ms. Good was one of us. She was a fellow Presbyterian. Edgewater Presbyterian Church (Illinois) remembered her with these words:“Renee Nicole Good lived out the conviction that every person deserves kindness, regardless of their background… Her story is a testament to the power of the Presbyterian mission and a challenge to our conscience. We mourn a fellow Presbyterian whose quiet smile and creative spirit touched lives from Colorado to Northern Ireland to Minnesota.”
Sixty one years ago in 1965, another women named Viola Liuzzo went through similar experiences. She participated in the famous Selma to Montgomery march by driving marchers back to Selma at the conclusion of the march. While driving a Black marcher, a car of KKK members pulled up next to her car and fired into Viola’s car killing her. The director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, devised a smear campaign accusing her of promiscuous sexual behavior with Black men. Eventually that lie was exposed. Wayne State University in her home town of Detroit honored Viola with a posthumous degree.
The witnesses of Renee Good and Viola Liuzzo are separated by time and space but united in their witness for love and justice in the face of violence and lies. They are among those to whom the words of Jesus’ final beatitude are addressed:
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The videos posted below are in honor and memory of Renee Good and Viola Liuzzo