Andrew Young receives Daniels Humanitarian Award
By Steph
Wiechmann
Jonathan Myrick
Daniels had learned military discipline as a cadet at the Virginia
Military Institute, where he was the valedictorian in 1961. Four years
later, he was a seminary student, an unarmed “soldier” of the civil
rights movement, when he was murdered in a small town in Alabama.
Thursday, VMI honored Daniels’ memory by giving the second Jonathan
Myrick Daniels Humanitarian Award to Andrew Young, a former U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations. Young had been one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s top
aides and was fighting the same “war” as his colleague, Daniels.
“Even though we were
committed to non-violence, we were coming into an area that was known
for its violence,” said Young in his acceptance speech to cadets and
guests in Cameron Hall. Daniels and Young had both worked to register
black citizens to vote during the movement. He said that
African-Americans in Mississippi and Alabama were beaten, killed, thrown
in rivers, and forgotten about. “If Jonathan Daniels had not agreed to
join us, it may still be going on.”
“The life of
Jonathan Daniels is a meaningful life because it is a life that is still
giving back to others,” said Young. “His life was required, but we are
all beneficiaries.”
On August 20, 1965,
in Hayneville, Ala., Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian, stepped in front
of a shotgun blast meant for a 16-year-old African American teenager,
Ruby Sales, pushing her out of the way. He was killed instantly.
Young was selected
as a recipient of the award, said VMI Superintendent General J.H.
Binford Peay III, because he is “a man who has lived his life by the
same principles as Jonathan Daniels.” He was given a replica of the VMI
statue “Virginia Mourning Her Dead” with a quote from Daniels: “Above
all else, we are called to be saints.”
Young has had a long
career in public office, serving as a Congressman from Georgia, mayor of
Atlanta, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He is an ordained
minister in the United Church of Christ and currently serves as the
chairman of GoodWorks International, an Atlanta-based special consulting
group.
VMI established the award in 1998. Former President Jimmy Carter was given the inaugural award in 2001.
During the ceremony, Young spoke about what the world can learn from Daniels.
“There’s a battle going on in each of us,” Young said. “Yes, we are called to be saints. But there’s one hell of a lot of devil in everybody. And on any given day, you don’t know what’s liable to prevail. But Jonathan Daniels stood up to represent the saintly America – the best that America and VMI has to offer.”
Young remembered Daniels as a “citizen soldier,” the VMI ideal that Daniels is said to exemplify. According to the institution, the Jonathan Daniels story is included in the “Rat Bible,” which all new cadets must memorize. The book says that Daniels served in “an army with a religious ministry.”
In closing his remarks, Young challenged the VMI cadets and others in the audience to be like Daniels and dream impossible dreams.
“If you give your life to an impossible dream, you’ll be surprised how many of them you can achieve. Birmingham and Selma were impossible dreams,” he said.
Young continued, “Dream big and run big risks. Don’t be afraid or ashamed of failure. And above all, don’t fear death. You don’t have anything to say about it.”
The Episcopal Church designated Daniels a martyr of the church in 1991, one of the 15 modern-day martyrs it recognizes. Daniels is the second American, next to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to be honored in the Chapel of Martyrs at England’s Canterbury Cathedral.
R.E. Lee Episcopal Church in Lexington will also celebrate Daniels’ life Sunday, March 26. Ruby Sales, whose life was saved by the heroic cadet, now an Episcopal minister, will give the sermon and help celebrate the Eucharist.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming
Editing supervisor: Prof. Pamela Luecke
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd