During the social transformation of the South in the 1970s, Mays' legacy in his birthplace was solidified and he took on the title of "native son". [14] Throughout his tenure as governor, 18 black men were lynched and dozens were hurt in the 1876 shoot-off. [37] Mays began labor organizing to increase his wage, which was seen negatively by the Porter managers. Mays clusters and describes Negro views about God into three categories: traditional biblical themes; justice and equality; and social change. He was not ahead of his time. Church provided another outlet for his talents. Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography. During this time he also produced his powerful autobiography. He graduated from Bates in 1920, after which he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. [31] The two met when Mays was still in South Carolina and wrote to each other frequently. He sensed that Morehouse College could and would play an important role in the lives of black America, and ultimately the country. Police were called to the. They expressed such confidence in me that I always felt that I could never betray their trust, never let them down. [86], In his home state of South Carolina he was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1984. Salley, Columbus, The Black 100, Citadel Press, 1993. During his tenure, he supervised the desegregation of the schools and appointed the first African American superintendent of schools, Alonzo Crim. . Although he through his life had been appreciative of all of them, he "[was] reported to have said he was moved most deeply when a small black church in Ninety Six, South Carolina, renamed itself Mays United Methodist Church. Newberry, Brittany; Tanner, Sarah. Less than a year before completing his dissertation at Chicago in the spring of 1935, Mays accepted a position as dean of the School of Religion at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Mays distinguished himself as an effective administrator, elevating the Howard program to legitimacy and distinction among schools of religion. After a year more in Richmond, Mays elevated his grades to the top of his class and wrote personally to Bates president George Colby Chase. He and a fellow minister, Joseph W. Nicholson, spent 14 months collecting data from some 800 rural and urban churches throughout the country in an effort to identify the churchs influence in the black community. He is best known for his work as a civil rights activist and educator. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Mays revered him as his "spiritual son". Leadership and the pursuit of further education became watchwords at Morehouse. He began his studies there as a sophomore in September 1917. His wife, Sadie, accompanied him on most of his trips. The youngest of eight children, Benjamin Mays was born in Epworth, South Carolina, in 1894, and raised on an isolated cotton farm. Why You Need to Visit the Dr. Benjamin Mays Historic Site in Greenwood Smith, Caroline "Mays, Benjamin E. 18941984 Benjamin Elijah Mays was born on August 1, 1894 or 1895 in a rural area outside Ninety-Six, South Carolina. Education : Bates College, B.A., 1920; University of Chicago, M.A., 1925, Ph.D., 1935. He was very much a product of Dr. Mays religious thinking. [78], His "commanding and demanding personality" was largely credited for the exponential levels of desegregation in Atlanta. Contrary to popular writing and official college records, Mays never received Phi Beta Kappa; his attendance of a "high school school from the South" disqualified him. One year before completing the doctorate, Mordecai Johnson, the respected president of Howard University in Washington, D.C., persuaded Mays to assume the deanship at Howard's School of Religion. God and Education. They gave me the thing I most needed. Benjamin E. Mays Drive in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Benjamin E. Mays Archives in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Benjamin E. Mays National Memorial in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Johnnetta Cole has been many things in her long career: an anthropologist, a teacher, a col, Forman, James 1928 The results of the study were published in 1933 under the title The Negro's Church. With the blessing of Mordecai Johnson he became president of Morehouse on August 1, 1940. After completing his B.A. During the early 1960s, having entered the third decade of his presidency of Morehouse College, Mays played an important role in the integration of Atlanta by helping students organize sit-ins at lunch counters and other segregated facilities. black extremists" for undermining attempts at unity between races. This made it only the second all-black seminary in the nation to receive such accreditation. Long before I could visualize them, I knew within my body, my mind, and my spirit that I faced galling restrictions, seemingly insurmountable barriers, dangers and pitfalls.". He searched widely for faculty with doctorates. Where Did Benjamin Mays Make His Eulogy For Mlk? Seeking to Be Christian in Race Relations, Friendship, 1957. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Mays excelled as a student from an early age, and was driven throughout his youth by what he termed "an insatiable desire to get an education." [15] On November 8, 1898, members of the Phoenix Riota white supremacist mobrode up on horses to the Mays household, a repurposed cotton plantation. Updated: 11:56 AM EDT May 29, 2023 ATLANTA Atlanta Police are investigating a deadly shooting that happened Memorial Day weekend at Benjamin E. Mays High School. [12] The Bible was influential to young Mays because he could see his name (of Biblical origins) mentioned frequently, instilling a feeling of empowerment within. The return of black soldiers from Europe at the end of World War I had only served to heighten racial tensions in the city. In 1930 Mays left this post to direct a study of black churches in the United States for the Institute of Social and Religious Research in New York City. American Association of Theological Schools, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Postcivil rights era in African-American history, "Benjamin Mays found a voice for civil rights", "Benjamin Mays, Educator, Dies; Served as Inspiration to Dr. King", "Morehouse College | Benjamin E. Mays Bio", "Tampa Riverwalk Monument Trail: Benjamin Elijah Mays", "Introduction to MMUF and Dr. Benjamin E. Mays", "HD Stock Video Footage - Dr. Benjamin E. Mays delivering benediction prayer at conclusion of "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom", http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/about_king/encyclopedia/mays_benjamin.htm, "April 1968: Benjamin Mays '20 delivers final eulogy for the Rev. Among his earliest memories was that of a group of white men with rifles riding up to his home on horseback and demanding that his father remove his cap and bow down to them. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. A preacher, teacher, scholar, author, poet, and mystic, Howard Thurman was one of the leading, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology: Tabular Data, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology: Narrative Description, Benjamin Butler's Report on the Contrabands of War (1861, by Benjamin Butler), Benjamin ben Eliezer Ha-Kohen Vitale of Reggio, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/mays-benjamin-e-1894-1984, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mays-benjamin-1895-1984, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/benjamin-e-mays, Historically Black Colleges and Universities. [61] Gandhi told Mays that there was never an instance where violence was acceptable especially that which was undertaken in retaliation. on October 14, 2020 - Updated 4 months ago This post may contain affiliate links. The peak of his public influence coincided with his nearly three-decade tenure as the sixth president of Morehouse College, a historically black institution of higher learning, in Atlanta, Georgia. Smith, Caroline "Mays, Benjamin E. 18941984 [66][71] Over Mays' twenty-seven years leading Morehouse, the enrollment increased 169%, from 238 to almost a thousand students and furthered the motivation for graduates to pursue graduate studies. Mays retired from Morehouse in 1967. [65] He specifically wished to increase the training of black physicians, ministers and lawyers. His most famous student at Morehouse was Martin Luther King Jr. During Kings years as an undergraduate at Morehouse in the mid-1940s, the two developed a close relationship that continued until Kings death in 1968. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Dr. Benjamin Mays Biography - University of New Mexico He would write to the employers of the college's graduates to ask them how the recent grads were doing as a way to measure the Morehouse education. King later became a member of the Morehouse College board of trustees. When Mays walked into a room, eyes were likely to focus in his direction. 72-80. [35] He eventually made it to the Omega Psi Phi meeting, where he spoke of his experience. In 1930, the Institute of Social and Religious Research, funded by the Rockefeller family, embarked on the most ambitious study to date on the black church and its influence on the African-American population. "[1], Mays began teaching again, and served as a private advisor to the president of Michigan State University and went on to publish Disturbed About Man, a collection of his sermons at Morehouse College. Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his . He graduated in 1916 as valedictorian. To do that, Mays sought to be more strict in the collection of student fees, and wanted to increase Morehouse's endowment from $1,114,000. Eventually Mays overcame his father's objections, however, and enrolled at the high school of South Carolina State College at Orangeburg. Mays visited King and his parents at their home and became a regular guest at the family's Sunday night dinners. "Combative Sprirituality and the Life of Benjamin E. "Born to Rebel: The Life and Legacy of Benjamin E. Mays". [78] He is widely credited as the most influential figure in the desegregation of Atlanta, Georgia. Educator, theologian, civil rights advocate, writer, Found Fulfillment in Academic Achievement. 5 November 2014. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mays-benjamin-1895-1984, WATKINS, WILLIAM H. "Mays, Benjamin (18951984) The testimony of former students and public figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Julian Bond, Lerone Bennett and many others suggests that his students listened to his exhortations. Retrieved June 29, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/mays-benjamin-e-1894-1984. [78], Mays has been the subject or inspiration of memorials, and the eponym of hundreds of buildings, schools, streets, halls, awards, grants, scholarships, fellowships, and statues. Still, he was forced to battle racial discrimination and economic hardship in the drive to obtain an education. [1] While King was a student from 1944 to 1948 he often went to Morehouse's chapel to hear Mays preach. Georgian representative John Lewis proposed a bill in January 1993 that would commemorate Mays on a federal stamp and requested that Mays be given the Medal of Freedom posthumously. [55] He was a vocal opponent of the notion that black men are inherently more violent than their white counterparts in universities. idea that despite crippling circumscriptions the sky was their limit.". Encyclopedia.com. Most importantly, he began aggressively collecting the considerable tuition arrears from students. While president of Morehouse, Mays fought for the integration of all-white colleges but remained an outspoken advocate of predominantly black institutions, such as Morehouse and Howard. While there, the Urban League produced what became known as the "Mays Report", which detailed the growth of Tampa's African-American communities and the difficulties they experienced living in segregated neighborhoods. [59] When Mays left Howard University, he was honored with the renaming of the newly constructed home of the divinity school to "Benjamin Mays Hall.
