Episcopal bishop to visit Selma

Published 7:17 pm Saturday, July 11, 2015

The newly elected bishop of The Episcopal Church will visit Selma in August to help honor civil rights martyrs.

Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina was elected the church’s first black presiding bishop during the denomination’s general convention last month in Salt Lake City, Utah. He will succeed the church’s first female presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, in November.

Curry, along with other bishops and pilgrims from across the country, is expected to visit the Black Belt the weekend of Aug. 15-16 to honor civil rights martyrs, including Jonathan Myrick Daniels.

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In March 1965, Daniels, a 26-year-old seminary student from New Hampshire, answered the call from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for students and clergy to come to Selma to take part in the voting rights march to Montgomery.

After returning to seminary for final exams, Daniel came to Alabama a second time in July, working to register voters and tutor students. During this time, he meet Catholic priest Richard F. Morrisroe through John Lewis, who had led the Bloody Sunday march with the Rev. Hosea Williams.

On Aug. 20, 1965, Daniels and Morrisroe as well as 20 other protestors had just been released from Lowndes County Jail after picketing a whites-only store in Fort Deposit.

The two walked with teenagers Ruby Sales and Joyce Bailey to nearby Varner’s Cash Store, one of the few places that would serve nonwhites, to buy cold drinks for the group.

The four were met at the store’s entrance by shotgun-wielding volunteer sheriff’s deputy Tom L. Coleman. He threatened the group and pointed his weapon at 16-year-old Sales.

Daniels pushed Ruby to the group, taking a full shotgun blast at near point-blank range to the chest and stomach. Morrisroe grabbed Bailey and ran, but he too was gunned down in the lower back.

Morrisroe survived after an 11-hour emergency surgery in Montgomery; Daniels died instantly on the store’s front stoop.

Daniels and others who died fighting for civil rights will again be honored during the pilgrimage, which will begin Saturday, Aug. 15 at the Lowndes County Courthouse Square at 11 a.m.

Past years have included a short walk to the Lowndes County Jail as well as Varner’s Cash Store. Since last August, the property owner has demolished the building that once housed the store. During this year’s pilgrimage, a historic marker will be erected at the site.

The day will end with a service as well as communion in the Lowndes County Courtroom, where an all-white jury of men acquitted Coleman.

Pilgrims are expected from across the country, including Daniel’s hometown of Keene, N.H.; his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute; and Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Selma will be open for tours from 3-5 p.m. after the service in Hayneville. Curry is expected to preach during St. Paul’s’s Sunday morning service at 10 a.m. the following day.

“It has been over 100 years since a presiding bishop has visited St. Paul’s so this is very exciting,” said church rector Jack Alvey. “Bishop Curry is a fantastic preacher and is someone who is passionate about Christ’s ministry of reconciliation so his message will support and enhance a lot of the work that has been going on at St. Paul’s and in Selma.”