NORTHAMPTON — Seminarian, civil rights activist and Episcopal martyr: Jonathan Daniels died when he was only 26, but the events of his life are important enough to be celebrated each year by the Episcopal church.
This Saturday, the Rev. Harvey Hill of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Agawam and Steve Strimer of the David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History and Underground Railroad Studies will lead a worship service and give a historic tour of Florence to honor Daniels.
The event will be a first for the David Ruggles Center, a celebration of the northern white man’s sacrifice on behalf of African-American southerners.
“Daniels is commemorated in our church calendar, and we wanted to celebrate him but ground the event locally,” Hill said. “This is a time to think about what his life can mean for us as we continue to fight for justice.”
Daniels, originally from New Hampshire, entered seminary in 1963 when he was 24. In March 1965, he traveled to Selma, Alabama, to march for voting rights, returning several times throughout the spring and summer.
He went south in answer to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for clergy in the north to support civil rights movements. Daniels died on Aug. 20 that year, when a part-time sheriff shot him on a street in Hayneville, Alabama, as Daniels pushed a black teenage girl down to safety.
The Episcopal Church considers Daniels a martyr and celebrates him on Aug. 14 each year.
“I like to think about how this white, privileged boy from the north came to put his life on the line for others,” Hill said. “The question becomes how we can follow this trajectory and his example.”
Hill said this question is part of what he will discuss in his sermon at the event Saturday. The event also includes an hour-long walking tour of African-American history in Florence.
The David Ruggles Center, where the event starts, is named for an Underground Railroad conductor who eventually joined a utopian community in Northampton. The tour will highlight former homes of fugitive slaves and members of that utopian community, including Sojourner Truth, said Steve Strimer from the David Ruggles Center, who will lead the tour.
“There is a rich African-American history in the area, so we’re glad to help the Episcopalian community with this event, which is a first for us,” Strimer said. “Our role is to try to interpret the lives of the abolitionists and civil rights workers and understand how our history came to be.”
Saturday’s event starts at 10 a.m. at the David Ruggles Center, 225 Nonotuck St. Refreshments will be served. The event is free to the public, but a $10 donation is suggested.