Episcopalians from across the country gathered in Hayneville on Saturday to honor the memory of a seminary student who gave his life to protect a young black girl during the height of the civil rights movement.
His name was Jonathan Daniels and the fateful step he took that hot August day 46 years ago is memorialized every year in this Lowndes County town.
Named a martyr within the Episcopal Church, Daniels has become the focal point of a movement that claimed several lives in 1965 and eventually led to passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Daniels grew up in the small city where I was born. Amy and I visited Hayneville some years ago specifically to see where this had happened--the place looked frozen in history. Read Outside Agitator for the story.
