About Jonathan Daniels
10:00 AM: Saturday, August 14th, Hayneville, AL.
3:PM : EPF/Integrity gathering, Montgomery, AL. (see below)
The
Diocese of Central Gulf Coast, Reach Inc. of Lowndes County, and our diocese (the Diocese of
Alabama) are once again sponsoring the annual pilgrimage honoring Jonathan
Myrick Daniels and others who gave their lives in helping others during the
civil rights movement. The pilgrimage begins at 11 a.m. at the Courthouse Square with a procession to the old
country jail where Jonathan, Ruby Sales, and other civil rights leaders were
detained for a week in August 1965. Jonathan was born in 1939 in Keene, New Hampshire, and graduated from Viginia
Military Institute before entering Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In March 1965 he came to Selma to assist in voter registration
work in Dallas and Lowndes Counties. He and his coworkers were
arrested on August 14 in Fort Deposit for joining a picket line, and
they were transferred to the county jail in Hayneville, where they remained
until their release on August 20.
The
pilgimage procession continues on to the old Cash Grocery Store where Jonathan
stepped forward to protect Ruby from sheriff's deputy Tom Coleman, who was
threatening her; Jonathan died from a blast from the officer's 12-gauge
shotgun. The procession leads back to the square and the monument placed by
Virginia Military Institute in Jonathan's honor. The pilgrimage ends in the
Courthouse, where Tom Coleman was tried and acquitted, with a service of Holy
Eucharist and Tonea Stewart's address. For
more information please contact the Rev. William King at bking@dioala.org or
205-715-2060 ext. 317.
