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Wreath Laying Ceremony in Daniels Courtyard
Wreath Laying Ceremony in Daniels Courtyard March 11, 2015
VMI Alumni Review, 2015-Issue 3
In remarks given after he accepted VMI’s Jonathan M. Daniels ’61 Humanitarian Award March 11, 2015, Rep. John Lewis counseled the Corps of Cadets to “never give up, never give in and never give out” in their quest to create a more just society.
The award is presented by the VMI Board of Visitors in honor of Daniels, valedictorian of the VMI Class of 1961, who was killed while saving the life of African-American teenager Ruby Sales during the violent struggle for civil rights in Alabama in 1965. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Daniels’ death.
Lewis, who has represented Georgia’s 5th District in Congress since 1986, was honored with the award because of his commitment to social justice and deep ties to the civil rights movement.
During his remarks, the son of Alabama sharecroppers reminded his audience that the need to get in “good trouble, necessary trouble” had driven him ever since a childhood vision of himself as a preacher had led him to preach to chickens in his family’s backyard.
As a young adult, Lewis went out of his way to meet Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he described in a later meeting with cadets as an “older brother.”
Alongside King and other leaders of the civil rights movement, Lewis participated in the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march March 7, 1965, during which he and many others were severely injured when Alabama state troopers, some on horseback, attacked the unarmed protesters with billy clubs and tear gas as they crossed a bridge in Selma, Alabama.
“I thought I was going to die on that bridge,” said Lewis, who required a hospital stay to recover from the beating he received.
Lewis also took the opportunity to put the Selma bridge incident in perspective. The congressman said that when people tell him little progress has been made toward racial equality in this country, he tells them, “Come walk in my shoes. ... From someone who grew up preaching to chickens, to be able to stand near that bridge and introduce the first African-American president to that multitude of people, I feel more than lucky. I feel blessed.”
But that sense of blessing didn’t come without a bitter and heavy cost. “The blood of Jonathan Daniels ... helped to bring us to where we are today,” said Lewis, who called Daniels, a seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the time of his death, “a beautiful spirit, a beautiful soul.”
Lewis likewise reminded his listeners that because of people like Daniels and others who stepped forward to make good and necessary trouble, the signs of segregation which marked his childhood, have long since disappeared from the American landscape.
Addressing the cadets in the audience, Lewis noted, “Your children, my grandchildren, will not see those signs. The only place you can see them is in a book, a museum or a video.”
With his lifelong commitment to optimism, Lewis took the opportunity to look ahead and envision a world very much like the one King, his late mentor, had lived and died for.
“Let’s do the best we can to create an America and a world community that’s at peace with itself,” Lewis exhorted his listeners. “Lay down the burden of hate and the burden of separation.”
As he concluded his remarks, Lewis quoted the late A. Philip Randolph, organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, who often said, “Maybe our forefathers and our foremothers all came to this great land in different ships. But we’re all in the same boat now.”
Lewis, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other awards, is only the fourth individual to be honored with the Daniels Award since the honor was first presented in 2001. That year, former President Jimmy Carter became the inaugural recipient. In 2006, the award was presented to Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and in 2011, to Dr. Paul Hebert ’68, an international humanitarian aid worker.
In addition to the awards ceremony and speech by Lewis, other activities on post in honor of Daniels included a wreath-laying ceremony in the Daniels Courtyard and a special performance of “Jonathan Myrick Daniels: the Martyr of Lowndes County” by the VMI Theater.
Among the many out-of-town guests attending the events were a number of people from Alabama. A special guest at the awards ceremony was Father Richard Morrisroe, a Roman Catholic priest who was severely injured in the attack that killed Daniels. (Article first published by VMI Communications and Marketing.)
Lewis spoke to cadets in Cameron Hall following the acceptance of his award. VMI photos by Kevin Remington.
“We have spent four years in preparation for SOMETHING. What that something is, who we are, we do not know.” from Jonathan Daniels’ valedictory address
