July 17, 2007

The ninth annual Jonathan Myrick Daniels and Martyrs of Alabama Pilgrimage honoring Daniels and others, who lost their lives during the civil rights movement, will take place August 11 in Hayneville, Alabama.

Daniels was the 26-year-old Episcopal seminarian 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.

Addressing this year's assemblage will be Dr. Tommie "Tonea" Stewart, an acclaimed actress, professor, and director of the theatre department at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. Stewart is best known for her role as Aunt Etta in the television series "In the Heat of the Night."

Hundreds are expected to gather to honor 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 August 14 each year.

The pilgrimage, sponsored by Reach Inc., of Lowndes County, and the Dioceses of Alabama and the Central Gulf Coast, will begin at 11 a.m., at the Courthouse Square. The procession will go to the old county jail where Daniels and Sales were among those detained for a week and then on to the old Cash Grocery Store where Daniels was murdered. Prayers and hymns will be offered at the place of martyrdom. The procession will then return to the square and the monument placed by Virginia Military Institute in Daniels' honor. The pilgrimage will end in the Courthouse where a service of Holy Communion will take place in the courtroom and Stewart will speak.

For further information call the Rev. William King at 205-715-2060 ext. 317 or e-mail bking@dioala.org.

Episcopal News Service