Southern US Christian civil rights martyr remembered

-14/08/06

The memory of Christian


Southern US Christian civil rights martyr remembered

-14/08/06

The memory of Christian civil rights martyr Jonathan Myrick Daniels was honoured at the Eighth Annual Jonathan Daniels and Martyrs of Alabama Pilgrimage, 11-12 August 2006 in Hayneville, Alabama, USA, this weekend.

Daniels was the a 26-year-old Episcopal seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) who answered the call of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr to help register African-American voters in Alabama, only to be shot and killed months later, on August 20, 1965, while shielding a then 16-year-old Ruby Sales from the shotgun fired as she attempted to enter a store to buy something to drink ñ writes Daphne Mack, staff writer for Episcopal News Service.

“The [Civil Rights] Movement was one of the most important struggles of the century because it broke the back of southern apartheid without the people firing one shot,” Ruby Sales said. “It offered a real alternative to those people who would argue that freedom can only be won through the butt of a shotgun.”

Sales said the incident rendered her mute for several months. She is now director of SpiritHouse, a Washington DC-based, national, non-profit organization that she founded in 2000. She has also served as director of the Citizens’ Complaint Centre in the US capital, director of Black Women’s Voices and Images, and director of Women of All Colours, which she also founded.

Ms Sales has gone on to teach courses on the Civil Rights Movement and African American women’s history at the University of Maryland. The Veterans of Hope Project at Illif School of Theology selected her as a Veteran of Hope.

Describing the importance of the yearly pilgrimages in Alabama, Sales said they serve as “indelible marks.”

“These annual pilgrimages serve to remind each of us that ordinary people made the southern movement possible and that it was a movement built on much sacrifice, and much commitment,” she explained. “People who were part of the movement faced tremendous violence, and hostility from both the state and white vigilante groups in the south so that this freedom, this struggle was not easy.”

More than 400 participants were due to honour Jonathan Myrick Daniels who was declared “a martyr and witness to the Gospel” and in 1994 was added to the Episcopal Church calendar of saints and martyrs, to be remembered on 14 August each year.

Attendees of the event participated in a Taize-style worship service on 11 August. This contemplative prayer service of music and prayers, hosted by youth from around Alabama, makes use of a tradition of ecumenical music which comes from the Taize Community in France which focuses on reconciliation.

The official pilgrimage began at 11 am on August 12 in the Courthouse Square. US Representative John Lewis of Georgia spoke at the service of Holy Eucharist. Lewis, a pioneer for civil rights, was a leader of the march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 which later came to be known as the United Statesí ëBloody Sunday.í

[Also on Ekklesia concerning civil rights: Martin Luther King speech a hit again; Gay bishop likened to black civil rights campaigners; Church leaders encounter US racism; Evangelical Alliance criticised for slur against same-sex couples; Bishop of Worcester supports gay civil partnerships; Human rights lawyer deplores deriding of Guantanamo suicides; Ekklesia response to racial and religious hatred bill; Peace churches help to rebuild US Gulf Coast; Iraq war brings unity for black Baptists; Palestinian refugee camp hit by Israeli bombing raid; Baptist seeks to rock the UK Black vote; Poverty groups and Christians attack Bush inaugural vision; Gordon Brown calls for a day to celebrate ‘Britishness’ – MLK response; Political message of Easter to be highlighted on BBC]


Southern US Christian civil rights martyr remembered

-14/08/06

The memory of Christian civil rights martyr Jonathan Myrick Daniels was honoured at the Eighth Annual Jonathan Daniels and Martyrs of Alabama Pilgrimage, 11-12 August 2006 in Hayneville, Alabama, USA, this weekend.

Daniels was the a 26-year-old Episcopal seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) who answered the call of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr to help register African-American voters in Alabama, only to be shot and killed months later, on August 20, 1965, while shielding a then 16-year-old Ruby Sales from the shotgun fired as she attempted to enter a store to buy something to drink ñ writes Daphne Mack, staff writer for Episcopal News Service.

“The [Civil Rights] Movement was one of the most important struggles of the century because it broke the back of southern apartheid without the people firing one shot,” Ruby Sales said. “It offered a real alternative to those people who would argue that freedom can only be won through the butt of a shotgun.”

Sales said the incident rendered her mute for several months. She is now director of SpiritHouse, a Washington DC-based, national, non-profit organization that she founded in 2000. She has also served as director of the Citizens’ Complaint Centre in the US capital, director of Black Women’s Voices and Images, and director of Women of All Colours, which she also founded.

Ms Sales has gone on to teach courses on the Civil Rights Movement and African American women’s history at the University of Maryland. The Veterans of Hope Project at Illif School of Theology selected her as a Veteran of Hope.

Describing the importance of the yearly pilgrimages in Alabama, Sales said they serve as “indelible marks.”

“These annual pilgrimages serve to remind each of us that ordinary people made the southern movement possible and that it was a movement built on much sacrifice, and much commitment,” she explained. “People who were part of the movement faced tremendous violence, and hostility from both the state and white vigilante groups in the south so that this freedom, this struggle was not easy.”

More than 400 participants were due to honour Jonathan Myrick Daniels who was declared “a martyr and witness to the Gospel” and in 1994 was added to the Episcopal Church calendar of saints and martyrs, to be remembered on 14 August each year.

Attendees of the event participated in a Taize-style worship service on 11 August. This contemplative prayer service of music and prayers, hosted by youth from around Alabama, makes use of a tradition of ecumenical music which comes from the Taize Community in France which focuses on reconciliation.

The official pilgrimage began at 11 am on August 12 in the Courthouse Square. US Representative John Lewis of Georgia spoke at the service of Holy Eucharist. Lewis, a pioneer for civil rights, was a leader of the march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 which later came to be known as the United Statesí ëBloody Sunday.í

[Also on Ekklesia concerning civil rights: Martin Luther King speech a hit again; Gay bishop likened to black civil rights campaigners; Church leaders encounter US racism; Evangelical Alliance criticised for slur against same-sex couples; Bishop of Worcester supports gay civil partnerships; Human rights lawyer deplores deriding of Guantanamo suicides; Ekklesia response to racial and religious hatred bill; Peace churches help to rebuild US Gulf Coast; Iraq war brings unity for black Baptists; Palestinian refugee camp hit by Israeli bombing raid; Baptist seeks to rock the UK Black vote; Poverty groups and Christians attack Bush inaugural vision; Gordon Brown calls for a day to celebrate ‘Britishness’ – MLK response; Political message of Easter to be highlighted on BBC]