View source for Jonathan Daniels

{{short description|American Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist}}
{{about|the Episcopal seminarian|the White House Press Secretary|Jonathan W. Daniels}}
{{Use American English|date = September 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = September 2019}}
{{Infobox saint
|name=Jonathan Daniels
|birth_name=Jonathan Myrick Daniels
|birth_date=March 20, 1939
|death_date={{Death date and age|1965|08|20|1939|03|20|mf=yes}}
|feast_day=August 14
|venerated_in=[[Anglican Communion]]
|image=Jonathan_Daniels.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption= Daniels (far right), c. 1960s
|birth_place=[[Keene, New Hampshire]], U.S.
|death_place=[[Hayneville, Alabama]], U.S.
|titles=Seminarian and civil rights activist
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=
|patronage=
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}

'''Jonathan Myrick Daniels''' (March 20, 1939 – August 20, 1965) was an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] seminarian and civil rights activist. In 1965, he was killed by Tom Coleman, a highway worker and part-time deputy sheriff, in [[Hayneville, Alabama]], while in the act of shielding 17-year-old [[Ruby Sales]] from a racist attack.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/08/20/433257680/50-years-ago-a-white-seminarian-gave-his-life-to-the-civil-rights-movement |title=50 Years Ago, A White Seminarian Gave His Life to the Civil Rights Movement |publisher=NPR |date=2015-08-20 |access-date=2017-01-13}}</ref> He saved the life of the young Black civil rights activist. They were both working in the nonviolent [[civil rights movement]] in [[Lowndes County, Alabama|Lowndes County]] to integrate public places and register Black voters after passage of the [[Voting Rights Act]] that summer. Daniels' death generated further support for the civil rights movement.

In 1991, Daniels was designated as a [[martyr]] in the Episcopal church, and is recognized annually in its calendar.<ref name="sanborn2"/><ref>His image is included in the webpage of St Andrew's Episcopal Church of Birmingham, Alabama, see http://www.standrews-birmingham.org/</ref>

== Background ==
Born in [[Keene, New Hampshire]], Jonathan Myrick Daniels was the son of Phillip Brock Daniels, a [[physician]] and [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]], and his wife Constance Weaver. Daniels considered a career in the ministry as early as high school and joined the Episcopal Church as a young man. He attended local schools before graduating from the [[Virginia Military Institute]]. He began to question his religious faith during his sophomore year, possibly because his father died and his sister Emily suffered an extended illness at the same time. He graduated as [[valedictorian]] of his class.<ref>Sanborn, Karen, [http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/special_reports/remembering-jonathan-daniels-part/article_f45ba9a4-f278-523d-8e35-fc46d4e5b35e.html "Remembering Jonathan Daniels: Part 1"], ''The Keene Sentinel'', August 11, 2005.</ref>

In the fall of 1961, Daniels entered [[Harvard University]] to study English literature. In the spring of 1962, during an [[Easter]] service at the [[Church of the Advent (Boston)|Church of the Advent]] in Boston, Daniels felt a renewed conviction that he was being called to serve [[God]]. Soon after, he decided to pursue [[ordination]]. After a working out of family financial problems, he applied and was accepted to the [[Episcopal Divinity School|Episcopal Theological School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], starting his studies in 1963 and expecting to graduate in 1966.

== Civil rights work ==
{{No footnotes|date=November 2024}}
[[File:Old Hayneville Jail.jpg|thumb|right|Old Hayneville Jail where Daniels and others were held]]
[[File:Varner's Cash Store.jpg|thumb|right|Varner's Cash Store, 2013]]
In March 1965, Daniels answered the call of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who recruited students and clergy to join the movement in [[Selma, Alabama]], to take part in the march for voting rights from [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to the state capital of Montgomery]]. Daniels and several other seminary students left for Alabama on Thursday, intending to stay the weekend. After Daniels and friend Judith Upham missed the bus home, they had second thoughts about their short stay. The two returned to the seminary just long enough to request permission to spend the rest of the semester working in Selma, where they would also study on their own and return at the end of the term to take exams.

In Selma, Daniels stayed with the Wests, a local African-American family. During the next months, Daniels worked to integrate the local Episcopal church by taking groups of young [[African Americans]] to the church. The church members were not welcoming. In May, Daniels returned to the seminary to take his semester exams and passed.

Daniels went back to Alabama in July to continue his work. He helped assemble a list of federal, state, and local agencies that could provide assistance for those in need. He also tutored children, helped poor locals apply for aid, and worked to register voters. That summer, on August 2, 1965, Congress passed the [[Voting Rights Act]] which provided broad federal oversight and enforcement of the constitutional right to vote. Before that, blacks had been effectively [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchised]] across the South since the turn of the century.

== Murder ==
On August 14, 1965, Daniels was one of a group of 29 protesters, including members of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC), who went to [[Fort Deposit, Alabama]], to picket its whites-only stores. All of the protesters were arrested. They were transported in a garbage truck to a jail in the nearby town of [[Hayneville, Alabama|Hayneville]]. The police released five juvenile protesters the next day. The rest of the group was held for six days in a facility which lacked air conditioning.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/escru/jonathan-daniels |title=Jonathan Daniels · The Archives of the Episcopal Church · The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Struggle for Justice |website=episcopalarchives.org |language=en-US |access-date=2018-08-15}}</ref> Authorities refused to accept [[bail]] for anyone unless everyone was bailed.

Finally, on August 20, the prisoners were released without transport back to Fort Deposit. After release, the group waited near the courthouse jail while one of their members called for transport. Daniels and three others—a white [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] priest and two black female activists—walked to buy a cold soft drink at nearby Varner's Cash Store, one of the few local places to serve non-whites. But barring the front was Tom L. Coleman, an unpaid special deputy who was holding a shotgun and had a pistol in a holster. Coleman threatened the group and leveled his gun at seventeen-year-old [[Ruby Sales]]. Daniels pushed Sales down and caught the full blast of the shotgun and was instantly killed. Father Richard F. Morrisroe grabbed activist Joyce Bailey and ran with her. Coleman shot Morrisroe, severely wounding him in the lower back, and then stopped firing.<ref>{{cite news | first=Roy | last=Reed | title=White Seminarian Slain in Alabama}}</ref>

Upon learning of Daniels' murder, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] stated that "one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels."<ref>{{cite web | title = Jonathan Myrick Daniels (VMI Class of 1961) Civil Rights Hero | publisher = Virginia Military Institute | url = http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=14481 | access-date = February 1, 2015}}</ref>

A grand jury indicted Coleman for [[manslaughter]]. [[Richmond Flowers Sr.]], the Attorney General of Alabama, believed the charge should have been [[murder]] and intervened in the prosecution, but was thwarted by the trial judge T. Werth Thagard. He refused to wait until Morrisroe had recovered enough to testify and removed Flowers from the case. Coleman claimed self-defense, although Morrisroe and the others were unarmed, and was acquitted of manslaughter charges by an [[racial discrimination in jury selection|all-white jury]].<ref name="nyt"/><ref name="episcopalarchives.org">[http://www.episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit/leadership/daniels.php "Leadership Gallery: Jonathan Daniels, 1939–1965"], The Archives of the Episcopal Church.</ref> [[Disfranchisement]] had resulted in excluding blacks from jury duty, as only voters were called.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Flowers described the verdict as representing the "democratic process going down the drain of irrationality, bigotry and improper law enforcement."<ref>[http://www.daniels.keene.k12.nh.us/lifeofjonathandaniels9.html "Life of John Daniels"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014162219/http://www.daniels.keene.k12.nh.us/lifeofjonathandaniels9.html |date=2009-10-14 }}, Keene Schools material.</ref>

Coleman continued working as an engineer for the state highway department. He died at the age of 86 on June 13, 1997, without having faced further prosecution.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/22/us/thomas-coleman-86-dies-killed-rights-worker-in-65.html |work=The New York Times | title=Thomas Coleman, 86, Dies; Killed Rights Worker in '65 |date=June 22, 1997}}</ref>

== Aftermath ==
The murder of an educated, white seminarian who was defending an unarmed teenage girl shocked members of the Episcopal Church and other whites into facing the violent reality of racial inequality in the South.{{Cn|date=June 2022}} Other members worked to continue the civil rights movement and work for social justice.

Ruby Sales went on to attend Episcopal Theological School (now [[Episcopal Divinity School]]). She worked as a human rights advocate in [[Washington, DC]], and founded an inner-city mission dedicated to Daniels.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

== Commemorations ==
*A sculpture group, ''The Garden of Gethsemani'' (1965–66) by sculptor [[Walker Hancock]], was dedicated to Daniels when installed at the [[Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani]] in [[Bardstown, Kentucky]]<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/golem21/4544186811/in/set-72157623788544333/ The Garden of Gethsemani] from Flickr.</ref>  
*In 1991, the Episcopal Church designated Jonathan Myrick Daniels as a martyr, and August 14 was designated as a day of remembrance for the sacrifice of Daniels and all the martyrs of the civil rights movement. The church also recognizes Martin Luther King Jr. 
*Daniels is one of 15 Episcopal martyrs to have been designated since the start of the 20th century.<ref name="episcopalarchives.org" /><ref>{{cite book|last= Hein |first= David |author2=Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr |title= The Episcopalians |publisher= Church Publishing Incorporated |year=2004 |isbn= 0-89869-497-3 |page= 136}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-03-04|title=American martyr: Jonathan Daniels|url=https://episcopalchurch.org/library/article/american-martyr-jonathan-daniels|access-date=2020-11-16|website=Episcopal Church|language=en}}</ref>
*Daniels was the subject of historian Charles Eagles' book ''Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama'' (1993), which won the [[Lillian Smith Book Award|Lillian Smith Award]] that year.
*The [[Episcopal Diocese of Alabama]] and the [[Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast]] sponsor a yearly pilgrimage in Hayneville on August 14, to commemorate Daniels and all other martyrs of the civil rights movement.
*The [[Virginia Military Institute]] created the Jonathan Daniels Humanitarian Award in 1998; awardees include former President [[Jimmy Carter]].  Additionally, VMI erected a memorial quote in barracks.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://vmi.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15821coll7/id/4198/ | title=VMI Archives Photographs Collection }}</ref>
*One of the five elementary schools in Daniels' hometown of [[Keene, New Hampshire]], is named after him.<ref name="sanborn2">{{cite news|url=http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/special_reports/remembering-jonathan-daniels-part/article_3c8e578e-61c7-525b-b724-c8071897e19a.html|title=Remembering Jonathan Daniels: Part 2 |date=August 12, 2005 |access-date=March 23, 2008|newspaper=The Keene Sentinel}}</ref> Daniels is one of 40 martyrs memorialized at the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]]'s Civil Rights Memorial in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].
*A [[New Hampshire historical marker]] ([[List of New Hampshire historical markers (226–250)#226|number 226]]) about Daniels was erected in Keene in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=85872 |title=Jonathan Myrick Daniels |website=The Historical Marker Database |access-date=July 3, 2019}}</ref>
*In November 2013, the [[Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island]] announced its plan to open the Jonathan Daniels House, a service-oriented [[intentional community]] for young adults, as part of the national Episcopal Service Corps program.<ref>[http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/11/21/jonathan-daniels-house-to-open-as-episcopal-service-corps-member/ Episcopal News Service] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234710/http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/11/21/jonathan-daniels-house-to-open-as-episcopal-service-corps-member/ |date=December 2, 2013 }}, Retrieved November 23, 2013.</ref>
*In 2013, the [[Order of Saint Luke]], a religious order in the [[United Methodist Church]], added Daniels to their calendar of saints and recommended his commemoration to all United Methodists.<ref>{{cite book| editor=Josselyn-Cranson, Heather|title= For All the Saints: A Calendar of Commemorations for United Methodists|publisher=Order of Saint Luke Publications|year=2013|edition=2nd|isbn=978-1491076088|page=227}}</ref> 
*In 2015, [[Washington National Cathedral]] unveiled and dedicated a sculpture of Daniels within its Human Rights Porch, designed by [[Chas Fagan]] and sculpted by stonemason Sean Callahan. Looking on at the dedication was the woman Daniels saved, Ruby Sales.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cathedral.org/what-to-see/interior/jonathan-daniels-2/ |title=Washington National Cathedral |publisher=Cathedral.org |access-date=2020-08-14}}</ref>
* Daniels is honored by a stained glass window at [[All Saints' Episcopal Church (Austin, Texas)|All Saints' Episcopal Church]] in [[Austin, Texas]], depicted standing with [[Absalom Jones]], a former slave who was the first African-American to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 23, 2025 |title=Racial Reconciliation Timeline |url=https://www.allsaints-austin.org/serve/racial-reconciliation/racial-reconciliation-timeline/ |access-date=January 23, 2025 |website=All Saints' Episcopal Church}}</ref>
*In 2025 icon of Jonathan Daniels was donated to Jonathan's home church, St. James Episcopal Church, in Keene, New Hampshire.

==Representation in other media==
*A play by Lowell Williams, ''Six Nights in the [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]]'', chronicles events related to the arrests in Fort Deposit, six nights in jail, and Daniels' murder. It also explores the relationship between Daniels and [[Stokely Carmichael]], then a member of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]], with whom he shared a jail cell in Hayneville. 
*Daniels and his murder were referred to in the TV film ''[[Selma, Lord, Selma]]'' (1999). He was played by [[Mackenzie Astin]].
*The Civil Rights memoir ''Brother to a Dragonfly'' by [[Will Campbell (Baptist minister)|Will Campbell]] includes the account of Daniels' murder.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Will D. |title=Brother to a Dragonfly |publisher=The Seabury Press |year=1977 |isbn=0816493219 |location=New York |pages=217–228 |language=English}}</ref>
*The film ''Here Am I, Send Me: The Story of Jonathan Daniels'' (2000)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/here-am-i-send-me-the-journey-of-jonathan-daniels/793300/ |title=Here Am I, Send Me: The Journey of Jonathan Daniels - TV Guide |website=TVGuide.com |access-date=15 October 2018}}</ref> documents his life and murder.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/14117023|title=Here Am I, Send Me: The Story of Jonathan Daniels |website=Vimeo |access-date=15 October 2018}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Daniels |first=Jonathan Myrick |editor-last=Schneider |editor-first=William J. |title=American Martyr: The Jon Daniels Story  |year=1992 |orig-year=1967 |place=Harrisburg, PA |publisher=Morehouse Publishing |isbn= 978-0819215864 }} Originally published as ''The Jon Daniels Story: with his Letters and Papers'' (New York: Seabury Press, 1967).
* {{cite book |last=Eagles |first=Charles |title=Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama |year=2000 |orig-year=1993 |place= Tuscaloosa |publisher= University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0817310691}} Originally published under same title by the University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, 1993).

==External links==
*[http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Jonathan_Daniels.htm Jonathan Myrick Daniels]
*{{Find a Grave|12600289|Jonathan Myrick Daniels}}
*[https://www.vmi.edu/archives/genealogy-biography-alumni/featured-historical-biographies/jonathan-daniels-civil-rights-hero/ Virginia Military Institute's page on Daniels]

{{Civil Rights Memorial|state=collapsed}}
{{Civil rights movement|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Keene, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:People murdered in 1965]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Virginia Military Institute alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:People murdered in Alabama]]
[[Category:Assassinated American civil rights activists]]
[[Category:African-American history of Alabama]]
[[Category:People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Alabama]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:American Anglo-Catholics]]
[[Category:Civil rights activists from New Hampshire]]
[[Category:20th-century American Episcopalians]]