In March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. called on American clergy for assistance after the brutal attack on activists at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. At first Jonathan Daniels was not sure – “Could I spare the time? Did I want to spare the time? Did Jesus want me to?” – but he resolved to go south. He joined the march to Montgomery and then, after most of the activists had returned home and the camera crews had packed up, he stayed. 

King called Jonathan’s last act “one of the most heroic Christian deeds I have heard of in my entire ministry and career for civil rights.”