Jonathan Myrick Daniels was a 26‑year‑old Episcopal seminarian from New Hampshire who answered Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for clergy to join the voting rights struggle in Alabama. On August 20, 1965, after being released from jail for picketing whites‑only stores, Daniels and three other activists—including 17‑year‑old Ruby Sales—went to Varner's Cash Store in Hayneville to buy a drink.Inside the doorway stood Tom Coleman, a special deputy sheriff known for his hostility toward civil rights workers. Coleman raised a shotgun and threatened the group, aiming at Sales. Daniels instinctively pushed her aside and stepped into the line of fire, taking the full blast to his chest. He was killed instantly. A second shot wounded a Catholic priest who was with them, but he survived.Daniels' death drew national attention to the dangers faced by civil rights workers. Coleman was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted by an all‑white jury. Daniels' selfless act has been remembered as one of the most heroic deeds of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1991, he was officially designated a martyr in the Episcopal Church, and he is commemorated annually on August 14.

The number drops dramatically for black, Latino and Asian American students with less than 16 percent each coming from those categories, the study said.