The Saints of Summer: A postscript of grace

You may have read my post on Saturday about the feast day of Jonathan Daniels. There is an amazing postscript of grace to the story, sent by my friend Carol Anne. Here it is:

Ruby Sales (born July 8, 1948 in Jemison, Alabama) is an African-American social activist. Growing up in Alabama during the tumultuous days of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, Sales participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. She was arrested for her actions, and released after six days.

While purchasing refreshments at a store in Hayneville, Alabama, her life was threatened by a shotgun-wielding construction worker, Tom Coleman. Sales' fellow marcher, white Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels, pushed her out of the way and took the bullet meant for her, dying instantly.

Sales was so traumatized by Daniels' shooting that she was unable to properly speak for the next seven months. Despite death threats made to her and her family, she resolved to testify at Tom Coleman's trial. He was acquitted by a jury of 12 white men, but the outcome of the trial led to reform of the segregated procedures that were used to pick juries in Alabama.

Sales went on to attend Episcopal Theological School in Massachusetts where Daniels attended (now Episcopal Divinity School), and has worked as a human rights advocate in Washington, D.C. as well as founding an inner-city mission dedicated to Daniels.

She joined others last Saturday in Selma to celebrate the life of Jonathan Daniels. She now heads the Spirit House Project, which you can read about by clicking HERE. To read more about Ruby Sales, click HERE.

The Saints of Summer: Jonathan Daniels

Not all martyrs lived long ago. We celebrate the feast day of one them today, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who was killed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 while working for equal rights in the Civil Rights Movement.

Daniels was a young Episcopal seminarian at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Mass., when like many other young people of his time, he answered the call from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to go to the South to join a march in Selma.

Daniels stayed on after the march, working to integrate the local Episcopal Church, and developing resources for those needing assistance in the African American community.

In August 1965, was arrested in a picket line in front of local businesses. After his release from jail, he and the others were confronted by a man with a shot gun, who told them they would be shot if they didn't leave. The man pointed the shot gun at an African American child who was with Daniels. When Daniels pushed the girl out of the way he was shot and killed.

We do well to remember Jonathan Daniels and those who sacrificed so much to bring equal rights closer to reality. And we do well to remember the struggle is never ended.

Before going to Selma, Daniels wrote this:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." I had come to Evening Prayer as usual that evening, and as usual I was singing the Magnificat with the special love and reverence I have always felt for Mary's glad song. "He hath showed strength with his arm." As the lovely hymn of the God-bearer continued, I found myself peculiarly alert, suddenly straining toward the decisive, luminous, Spirit-filled "moment" that would, in retrospect, remind me of others--particularly one at Easter three years ago. Then it came. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things." I knew then that I must go to Selma. The Virgin's song was to grow more and more dear in the weeks ahead."