Leroy Moton.

Leroy Moton was a teenager from Selma, Alabama born into 1946 that worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was in Alabama. Leroy is most known for being present during the murder of Viola Liuzzo after the Selma-Montgomery marches. Leroy was only 19 at the time and has since then told reporters that the murder not only changed him entirely as a person but impacted the movement as a whole.

When Leroy was just 15 he worked at an all-white restaurant washing dishes. One day his boss told him that, “if he ever ‘got involved with that n*gger [Martin Luther] King mess’ he would ‘kick his behind through his nose.’” That comment made up Leroy’s mind. Leroy began helping African-Americans register to vote and organized marches, he has also mentioned in a 2002 interview at the age of 56 that he and others were beat with baseball bats and sprayed with teargas by police.

After the murder of Viola Liuzzo Leroy laid unharmed and covered in blood, when the Klan Members peered into the car he ‘played dead.’ The instant they left Leroy got out of the car and ran for help. He managed to flag down a truck driven by Rev. Leon Riley over half an hour later.

When Leroy was testifying against Viola’s killers he said, “The battle isn’t over, it is never over.”