Become a Member! (click here) Progressive NH Profile Jonathan Daniels (1939-1965) - He was inspired by the work and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was drawn to the struggle of the civil rights movement. An Episcopal seminarian and resident of Keene, Daniels held a deep commitment to the ideals of justice and equality. On August 20, 1965, 14 days after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Daniels gave his life in the cause of those ideals. Daniels was shot and killed by Thomas Coleman, a part-time deputy sheriff, while participating in a voter registration drive in Hayneville, Alabama. According to witnesses, when Coleman leveled his shotgun at Ruby Sales - a 17-year-old African-American girl working with Daniels - Daniels pushed Sales out of the way. The shotgun blast hit Daniels in the stomach, killing him. Coleman was tried for the murder, but never convicted. Ruby Sales continued to work within the civil rights movement, and in 1998, she completed her divinity degree at the Episcopal Theology Seminary in Cambridge, MA, the same seminary Daniels had attended. Sales' brother also went on to be elected mayor of Selma, Alabama. Though death silenced Daniels' voice, the ideals he strove for became even more powerful. His murder added to the number of people calling on the South to reform its policies of racial intolerance and social, political and economic discrimination. His death brought home to New Hampshire - and the nation - the true nature and depth of the struggle for racial equality being waged in the South.