By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

Saturday, Aug. 11 will recall a tragic day in the history of Hayneville and the civil rights movement in Alabama. But it will also be a day of hope.

The Jonathan Myrick Daniels and the Civil Rights Martyrs of Alabama Pilgrimage will be held in the courthouse square in Hayneville beginning at 11 a.m.

According to Lowndes County Coordinator Fannie L. Davis, the speaker for the event, held in conjunction with the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, will be Carolyn Maull McKinstry, eyewitness to the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Following a service of remembrance in the courthouse, McKinstry will sign copies of her book “While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement” by McKinstry and Denise George, said Davis.

Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian, who answered the call of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King to help register African-American voters in Alabama. He was murdered at the then Cash’s Store in Hayneville, shielding 16-year-old Ruby Sales from a shotgun blast as she attempted to enter a store to buy something to drink on Aug. 20, 1965.

“It’s a time to reflect on the past and to work towards a future that is inclusive of all ethnic groups,” Davis said.

Other Martyrs of Alabama remembered will include: Willie Edwards Jr. Jan. 23, 1957, Montgomery; William Lewis Moore, April 23, 1963, Attalla; Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Sept. 15,1963, in Birmingham; Virgil Lamar Ware, Sept. 15, 1963, Birmingham; Jimmie Lee Jackson, Feb. 26, 1965, Marion; Viola Greg Liuzzo, March 25, 1965, near Lowndesboro; The Rev. James Reeb, Sept. 11, 1965, Selma; Willie Brewster, Sept. 18, 1965, Anniston; and Samuel Leamon Younge Jr., Jan. 3, 1966, Tuskegee and others known only to God.

For more information contact Fannie L. Davis, 334-590-5707.