Words From Dr. Ruby Sales

"A bittersweet night in Bridgeport, Connecticut at Bijou Theatre attending a production on the witness and murder of Jonathan Daniels by Tom Coleman during the Southern Freedom Movement. This marvelous and painful production was written and directed by Rev. Ina Anderson, performed by Emerging Voices and choreographed by Tiffany Williams. These young and gifted performers stole my heart tonight.  

Tonight I was seventeen again remembering the White terror that hung over Lowndes County like the dew in the early morning grass. Memories of White men with guns, baseball bats and garbage can tops threatening to kill us - twenty young people from Fort Deposit for demonstrating-  seeped out of their burial places. When the young girl playing me screamed out from the pain of the ulcer that came with our work I bit my lips to keep from becoming that screaming seventeen year old girl wanting in that moment in that filthy jail where men threatened to rape us to yell mama! Then came the sound of Tom Coleman 's gunshot last that murdered Jonathan when he took the  blast meant for me. I heard tonight for the first time in many years Tom Coleman's  voice yelling at me bit.. I will blow your brains out. 

Tonight those emotions that I pushed aside and made strangers showed up tonight as I sat riveted in my seat watching a drama of which I was a part and seeing Jon come alive before my eyes. It was both a bitter and sweet moment!"

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