Sunday, August 15, 2010

Crowd marks anniversary of civil rights slaying


From Alabama-

Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminary student from New England who was proud of his civil rights activities in Alabama, was aware that he could be arrested for leading protest marches.

The prospect of losing his life in the process wasn't something he generally talked about be cause he was busy working to register black voters.

On Aug. 14, 1965, he and a group of protesters were ar rested for picketing in the little Lowndes County town of Fort Deposit.

He and the other picketers were moved to the county seat in Hayneville and placed into a stifling hot jail where the food was as bad as the sanitation sys tem and they had little commu nication with the outside world.

One week later -- on Aug. 20, 1965 -- the 26-year-old seminary student was shot to death out side a small grocery store where he and three other activists had gone to get cold drinks.

Remembering Daniels in a special way around the time of his death has become an annual event for Episcopalians. About 200 men, women and children were at the town square in Hay neville on Saturday for the 45th anniversary of his death.

"It's a great sacrifice and a great story," said Richard Hoop er, one of several Florida Episcopalians who drove to Low ndes County to take part in the ceremony. "It should be a lesson to us all to live as he did in the service of others."

More here-

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100815/NEWS02/8150347/Crowd+marks+anniversary+of+civil+rights+slaying

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