On this day in Alabama history: Civil rights activist was murdered in Hayneville

August 20, 1965

Civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels was murdered by Tom Coleman, an unpaid special deputy, in Hayneville. A white Episcopal seminarian, Daniels took the full impact of a shotgun blast to the chest after pushing 17-year-old African-American Ruby Sales out of the way, saving her life. The activists were stranded in Hayneville without transportation after their release from jail for picketing whites-only stores in Fort Deposit a week earlier. Originally from New Hampshire, Daniels came to Alabama to participate in the Selma to Montgomery March. The Episcopal Church of the United States designated Daniels a martyr in 1991 and honors him annually on Aug. 14, the day of his arrest.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Old Hayneville Jail – Hayneville, AL. (Richard Apple, Wikipedia)

Jonathan Myrick Daniels (1939-1965) was an Episcopal seminarian who was murdered in Lowndes County during the civil rights era. His death sparked national awareness and media coverage of the civil rights struggle in Alabama. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of Virginia Military Institute Archives)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.