Remembering The 1965 Death Of New Hampshire's Jonathan Daniels

On August 20th, 1965 in Hayneville, Alabama, a young man named Jonathan Daniels, and three other civil rights workers walked to Varner's Cash Store to buy a drink. It was one of the few stores that would serve blacks at the time. A young seminarian from Keene, New Hampshire, was white. But went to Alabama, because at the age of 26, Daniels had heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s call that white clergy come to Selma to aid the civil rights movement.

As the group approached the store, Ruby Sales — who was just 17-years-old at the time — was standing right next to Daniels. That's when Tom Coleman, a Hayneville special deputy sheriff, stood in the doorway and confronted the group with a shotgun. Daniels shielded Sales with his body, when Coleman shot him, killing him instantly. King later called his sacrifice, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry."

Next week, Daniels's classmates and other members of Cambridge's Episcopal Divinity School will embark on five day pilgrimage to Georgia and Alabama to remember Jonathan Daniels' legacy.

Diane D’Souza, Director of Lifelong Learning at the Episcopal Divinity School.

Richard Morrisoe, former Catholic priest who was also shot in Hayneville, Alabama in 1965. He's the city planner of East Chicago, Indiana.