Solving U.S. race issues requires white leadership
Fifty-two years have passed since destiny caught up with Jonathan Daniels, a 26-yearold white Episcopal seminary student from Massachusetts.
Destiny and fate frequently travel parallel with death and such an unexpected demise awaited Daniels as he, Richard Morrisroe, a Catholic priest, and two young black women were ambushed while attempting to buy soda pop in a Ft. Deposit, Alabama store on August 20, 1965.
Daniels jumped in front of a shotgun shell fired by white supremacist and special county deputy, Tom Coleman.
Coleman had targeted 17-year-old Ruby Sales who escaped injury but Daniels suffered a fatal wound.
Morrisoe covered a second black girl, 19-year-old Joyce Bailey. Morrisoe received a gun shot wound in the back while Daniels died a civil rights hero and human rights martyr.
A jury of 12 white men eventually delivered a not guilty verdict for Coleman.
This developed interest in Daniels occurred after reading a letter presented by Rev. Bishop William Stokes who included insights about recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, including the murder of civil rights activist, Heather Heyer.
Heyer, 32, died after being struck by a gray Dodge Challenger during a protest in Charlottesville.
Authorities charged James Alex Fields, 20, with second-degree murder for allegedly driving the car into the crowd.
“Today, August 14 on the Church calendar,” Stokes wrote, “we remember Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who as a seminarian went to Selma, Alabama in 1965 to confront racism and oppression and who became a martyr protecting a teenage African-American girl when he was killed by a shotgun blast at the hand of a white supremacist.”
“On Saturday, Heather Heyer joined Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr. and a long list of martyrs — of many races and creeds — who died striving to oppose racial injustice and hatred in this country. The last post on Heather Heyer’s Facebook page stated, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
Daniels, like many white Northerners and blacks, had answered a call by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to come down to Selma in support of voting rights and other civil rights initiatives.
The young theologian stayed for much of the summer then returned home and to Harvard before realizing he had been called to serve in the south.
“Something had happened to me in Selma, which meant I had to come back,” Daniels wrote. “I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question … I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here.”
Daniels’ time in Selma included living with the Wests, a black family which had accepted him into their lives, hearts and world.
Daniels had spent about a week in a Hayneville, Alabama jail as he and others picketed whites-only stores in Ft. Deposit before being released a week before his death.
His papers included these thoughts about time in Selma:
“Sometimes we take to the streets, sometimes we yawn through interminable meetings … Sometimes we confront the posse, sometimes we hold a child,” Daniels wrote.
A posthumous revelation might include, “Sometimes we shelter others from hate, bigotry, despair and even death.”
This is not a request for any Caucasian person to take a bullet for me, for Jews, for Latinos, or for members of the LGBTQ community, etc. being targeted by white supremacists, Neo-Nazis and white nationalists, but we respectfully ask that white people do their part in effecting a change of course for this potentially great nation.
We have reached a historical crossroad, our road to Damascus.
People have attempted race resolutions with a variety of actions from peaceful measures and violence; with a variety of leaders including Malcolm, Marcus and Martin.
We will not back down but it’s painfully obvious that the U.S. race problem requires major involvement of white people.
The time has come to not only confront the posse but also to face individual family members, friends and all people who wield hate and intolerance.
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist.