Votelaw, Edward Still's blog on law and politics

Update: Jonathan Myrick Daniels was an Episcopal Seminarian who was shot and killed in Hayneville, Alabama, while working for voter registration in 1965. He saved the life of a young girl, Ruby Sales, while taking the shotgun blast himself. The Episcopal Dioceses of Alabama and of the Central Gulf Coast will celebrate his life and those of other martyrs of Alabama, on Saturday, 14 August 2004, beginning at 11:00 a.m in the Courthouse Square in Hayneville. The procession to the old jail and the site of Daniels' shooting will be followed by a Eucharist and lunch (available for $6.00).

Directions: from I-65, take exit 151 (about 12 miles south of Montgomery) and go west on Highway 97 to Hayneville (about 8 miles).

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Update: The Diocese of Alabama has announced that the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, a Native American and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School (formerly the Episcopal Theological Seminary), will be the homilist at the service in Hayneville. Also, Horace Boyer, the compiler of the "Lift Every Voice and Sing" hymnal used in many Episcopal churces, will direct the music. Boyer will also offer a music workshop on Friday, 13 August, for those who will form the choir the next day.

For more details, call the Diocese of Alabama at 205-715-2060.

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Make plans now to join me in Hayneville, Alabama, for the Annual Pilgrimage in honor of Jonathan Daniels who was murdered there in 1965. Daniels was a student at Episcopal Theological Seminary, Cambridge, Mass., who answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King to come to Alabama to help on the civil rights struggle. For more on Jonathan, see this page.

Please note that this is a religious ceremony. As this article from the Episcopal News Service reports,

The pilgrimage [in 2004] will be held on August 14, the day that Daniels is remembered in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. Already, bishops from Louisiana, West Tennessee, and North Carolina have promised to attend and bring pilgrims with them.

For those unfamiliar with Episcopal practice, the book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts includes commemoration of many saints and more modern folks the Episcopal Church has decided to honor. We put "Blessed" in front of their names.

For the last 5 or 6 years, this Pilgrimage has been a joint project of the Episcopal Dioceses of Alabama and the Central Gulf Coast (which includes the lower quarter of Alabama).

I will have more details later, but plan on getting to Hayneville about 10 or 11 a.m. Hayneville is 24 miles SW of Montgomery and 156 miles from Mobile, so you can easily drive from Birmingham, Montgomery, or Mobile that morning.

Y'all come.