Varner's Cash Store - Hayneville, AL
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member hoteltwo
N 32° 10.880 W 086° 34.845
16S E 539522 N 3560612
Marker describes the shooting death of a young civil rights activist in Hayneville, AL during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The murderer was a shotgun-wielding special county deputy who was acquitted by an all-white jury.
Waymark Code: WM12A2F
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 04/10/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Lazer
Views: 5

Marker text:

On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a 26-year-old Episcopal seminarian from Keene, New Hampshire, was shot dead at point blank range here. He was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and was attending Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daniels came to Selma in March, 1965, and led a movement to integrate the Episcopal Church there. On August 14, he went to support a demonstration in Fort Deposit. The group was arrested, brought to the Hayneville jail, and held for six days. Released on August 20, Daniels and the others walked from the jail to Varner's Cash Store to buy soft drinks. As they approached, Tom Coleman emerged with a shotgun, raised it, and fired. Daniels pushed Ruby Sales, a seventeen-year-old Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee worker, out of the way before being killed by the blast. As the others fled, Coleman fired again, wounding Father Richard Morrisroe, a Catholic priest. Coleman was tried for manslaughter and acquitted by an all - white jury. Hours after the verdict, Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. dismissed all charges from the Fort Deposit demonstration. Daniels is honored on August 14th on the calendar of the Episcopal Church.
Marker Name: Varner's Cash Store

Marker Type: Urban

Addtional Information::
Erected by the Alabama Historical Association. Weeks before the marker was erected the former Varner's Cash Store was suddenly demolished without any notice. The building seen on the left, was built later.


Date Dedicated / Placed: 2015

Marker Number: N/A

Visit Instructions:
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