Archival Resources

Oppenborn, Carolyn Potter
Papers Relating To Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Jonathan Myrick Daniels was born March 20, 1939 in Keene, New Hampshire. A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Daniels was enrolled at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he traveled to Alabama in 1965 to work with a voter registration drive in Selma. After the Selma to Montgomery March Daniels began work with the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Lowndes County. He was arrested along with other civil rights demonstrators in August 1965. After six days in jail in Hayneville the demonstrators were released. Daniels and three others approached a store in Hayneville to buy soft drinks. A local white man, Tom Coleman, ordered the group away from the store. When Daniels questioned the order Coleman shot and killed Daniels. Six weeks later an all-white Lowndes County jury found that Coleman had acted in self-defense.

Carolyn Potter Oppenborn, who gathered the material in this collection, was born June 23, 1913 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1935 Oppenborn worked as a secretary in Washington, D.C. for the National Recovery Administration. Later she was employed by the Jefferson County, Alabama Personnel Board from 1946-1957 and by the Birmingham Museum of Art from 1957 to 1963. From 1963 to 1968 Oppenborn worked for the San Diego, California Museum of Art. Oppenborn lived and worked in New Jersey and New York from 1968 to 1983. She retired to Birmingham, Alabama in 1983. Oppenborn is a member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham.

Sources:

Eagles, Charles W., Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

Carolyn Potter Oppenborn biographical notes, BPLA collection file.

This collection contains correspondence, clippings, photographs and other material relating to Jonathan Myrick Daniels. This material was gathered in preparation for and as a result of the program "A Weekend to Remember … The Thirtieth Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels." The Program was held at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, September 12-13, 1995 and included a number of participants who had known and worked with Daniels. Smaller programs recognizing Daniels were held at the church in subsequent years.

Not available.

Civil rights workers -- Alabama
Daniels, Jonathan Myrick, 1939-1965.
Oppenborn, Carolyn Potter, 1913-
St. Andrew's Parish (Birmingham, Ala.)

Collection Number: 1745

Size: 1 linear foot (1 box)

Restrictions: Standard preservation restrictions.

JB/10-25-00