Robert D. Thompson 
EXCLUSIVE: Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group feature film division Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures has acquired the worldwide media rights to the critically acclaimed landmark biography From Selma to Pain: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo.
Written by author / historian Mary Stanton (Journey to Justice, Freedom Walk, The Hand of Esau), From Selma to pain traces the life story of Viola Liuzzo – a white housewife, part-time student and mother of five – whose passion for the civil rights movement led to her brutal assassination by the Ku Klux Klan immediately after her death. participation in the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches of 1965. Liuzzo’s story will be told through the eyes of her best friend, Sarah Evans, an African American woman who introduced her to the civil rights movement and raised them. five children of Liuzzo after his untimely death.
While Liuzzo is the only white woman honored at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, 55 years after her murder, she remains an enigma. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Liuzzo’s funeral, and his murder motivated President Lyndon Johnson to galvanize support for civil rights legislation.
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Many viewed Liuzzo as a staunch civil rights activist. However, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover compromised Liuzzo’s reputation because he devised a malicious public relations campaign that unfairly portrayed Liuzzo as an unstable woman who abandoned her family to cause trouble in the South. Hoover desperately tried to cover up the FBI’s relationship with an informant and a Klansman who participated in Liuzzo’s murder. Years of relentless accusations, innuendos and lies have had a huge impact on the life of Liuzzo’s husband and their five children.
Global media rights for From Selma to pain were acquired by Carolyn Folks, senior executive and executive producer of film and television content at Allen Media Group / Entertainment Studios. People will serve with Allen Media Group Founder / Chairman / CEO Byron Allen as the film’s producer and executive producer.
Tina Andrews wrote the screenplay based on the biography From Selma to Sorrow. Andrews’ many credits include writing and co-executive producing the two acclaimed mini-series Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Sally Hemings: an American scandal, as well as the writing of the biopic of the feature film Why do fools fall in love with Halle Berry and Vivica A. Fox. Casting and production on From Selma to pain should start this year.
“Our passion for the story of Viola Liuzzo is unwavering,” said Folks. “At Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, we are committed to showcasing Liuzzo’s extraordinary acts of courage and his impactful contribution to the civil rights movement and our history. Viola Liuzzo will not be a forgotten heroine.
