Liuzzo was born Viola Fauver Gregg on April 1, 1925, in the small town of California, Pennsylvania, the elder daughter of Eva Wilson, a teacher, and Heber Ernest Gregg, a coal miner and World War I veteran. He left school in the eighth grade but taught himself to read. Her mother, Eva Wilson Gregg, had a teaching certificate from the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1941, the Gregg family moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where her father sought a job assembling bombs at the Ford Motor Company. Viola's strong-willed nature led her to drop out of high school after one year, and elope at the age of 16. The marriage did not last and she returned to her family. Two years later the Gregg family moved to Detroit, Michigan, which was starkly segregated by race. Tension between whites and blacks in Detroit was very high and the early 1940s saw violence and rioting. Witnessing these horrific ordeals was a major motivator that influenced Viola's future civil rights work.  In 1943, she married George Argyris, the manager of a restaurant where she worked. They had two children, Penny and Evangeline Mary, and divorced in 1949. She later married Anthony Liuzzo, a Teamsters union business agent. They had three children: Tommy, Anthony, Jr., and Sally. Liuzzo sought to return to school, and attended the Carnegie Institute in Detroit, Michigan. She then enrolled part-time at Wayne State University in 1962.  In 1964, Liuzzo began attending the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit, and joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  A large part of Viola's activism, particularly with the NAACP, was due to a close friendship with an African-American woman, Sarah Evans. After initially meeting in a grocery store where Liuzzo worked as a cashier, the two kept in touch. Evans eventually became the housekeeper of Liuzzo, while still maintaining a close, friendly relationship in which they shared similar views including support for the civil rights movement. In the aftermath of Liuzzo's death, Evans would go on to become the permanent caretaker of Liuzzo's five young children.  Liuzzo so passionately believed in the fight for civil rights, that she helped organize Detroit protests, attended Civil Rights conferences, and worked with the NAACP. Liuzzo had a strong desire to make a difference on as large a scale as she could.

Did they move away from Michigan?