Jonathan M. Daniels (March 20, 1939 -August 20, 1965), a 26 year old native of Keene, New Hampshire, and who was valedictorian of the Virginia Ministry Institute Class of 1961. He was awarded the prestigious Danforth Fellowship for post-graduate study and enrolled at Harvard University to continue his study of English literature. Daniels soon realized that he was called to the ministry. While a seminarian at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts he responded to the pleas of Dr. Martin Luther King for clergy to become more actively involved in the Civil Rights movement, and traveled to Alabama to assist with voter registration efforts in the South.
In August 1965 Daniels and 22 others were arrested for participating in a voter rights demonstration in Fort Deposit, Alabama, and transferred to the county jail in nearby Hayneville. The marchers spent nearly a week in jail. On Aug. 20, 1965, they were released without explanation and with no transportation back to Fort Deposit. While one of them went to call someone for a ride home, two Black teenagers, Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sales, walked with Daniels and Morrisroe to a store to buy a soda. When they got to the door, they were met by a man with a shotgun who told them to leave “or I’ll blow your damned brains out!” The man was Tom Coleman, a construction worker, and part-time deputy sheriff, who was carrying a shotgun. Coleman aimed his gun at sixteen year old Ruby Sales; Daniels pushed her to the ground in order to protect her, saving her life. The shotgun blast hit Daniels in his stomach and killed him instantly; Morrisroe was seriously wounded.
Tom Coleman was acquitted by a jury of 12 white men. The result of the trial led to legal challenges and a reform of the jury selection procedures, which had long excluded blacks, first because they were disenfranchised from voting before 1965, then because of a discriminatory process in developing the jury pool.
When he heard of the tragedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels."
In the years since his death, Daniels' selfless act has been recognized in many ways. Two books have been written about his life, and a documentary was produced in 1999. The Episcopal Church added the date of his death to its Calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and in England's Canterbury Cathedral, Daniels name is among the fifteen honored in the Chapel of Martyrs. The Virginia Military Institute created the Jonathan Daniels Humanitarian Award in 1998; awardees include former President Jimmy Carter. One of the five elementary schools in Daniels' hometown of Keene, New Hampshire, is named after him. In 2015 Washington National Cathedral unveiled and dedicated a newly-carved sculpture of Daniels (by sculptor Chas Fagan) within its Human Rights Porch.
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