Cascade History

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

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CascadeHistory.com

From Morehouse to Mays High: The Atlanta Legacy of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

Introduction: The Operatic Overture

On a cool Saturday afternoon in January 1954, a twenty-five-year-old man set out on a drive from Atlanta, Georgia, to Montgomery, Alabama. On his radio, the Metropolitan Opera performed Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”1 To a casual observer, the scene was one of middle-class comfort. For the driver, Martin Luther King Jr., the opera’s themes of inherited family feuds and the failure of a clergyman to stop a tragedy mirrored the burden he carried as a Black leader in the Jim Crow South.2 In the opera, a bass-singing chaplain named Raimondo steps between warring factions and commands them to put down their swords, a scene King would literally reenact on his own bombed porch in Montgomery.3 King was traveling to an audition to be the pastor of a prominent church, but his true vocation was already established. He was the intellectual vessel of a coming revolution, carrying the profound teachings of his Morehouse College president and mentor, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays.4

Mays was a man who believed that human personality was a copy of a supreme personality, and that any law degrading that personality was a violation of the divine.5 He had poured this theomorphic philosophy into King, famously warning his students that it would be a sad commentary on their time if future historians wrote that the last bulwark of segregation was God’s church.6 To understand the civil rights movement, one must understand the schoolmaster who engineered its intellectual foundation.

Chapter 1: The Shadow of Ninety-Six (1894 to 1920)

Benjamin Elijah Mays was born on August 1, 1894, in the Ninety-Six township of Epworth in Greenwood County, South Carolina.7 He confirmed this date through the 1900 Census despite family discrepancies that sometimes listed his birth year as 1895.8 He was the youngest of eight children born to Hezekiah and Louvenia Mays, both of whom had been born into slavery.9

Tragedy and terror shaped his early life. During the 1898 Phoenix Riot, his world was shattered. As reported in contemporary newspapers, the region exploded in violence following an election dispute, leading to headlines such as “Four Negroes Lynched Yesterday Afternoon.”10 The riot was sparked by the killing of a local white man, Giles O. “Bose” Etheridge, which unleashed a wave of terror.11 Amidst this chaos, a four-year-old Mays witnessed a white lynch mob on horseback force his father to salute and bow at gunpoint.12 He never forgot the sight of bloodhounds on his family’s land or the news of Black men hiding in swamps to escape being murdered.13 This trauma instilled a lifelong constant fear of the mob and catalyzed his rebellion against the myth of Black inferiority.14

Educational opportunities were scarce. Mays was permitted only four months of schooling a year, picking cotton in a cycle he called “three months up the hill and nine months down the hill.”15 He attended the Brickhouse School, a misnomer for a dilapidated frame building.16 Despite his father’s warning that education made Black men dishonest, Mays would often plow to the end of a row and hitch his mule to a tree to pray for an education.17

He graduated as valedictorian from the high school department of South Carolina State College in 1916 and moved north to Bates College in Maine.18 At Bates, he was an honors graduate and a Phi Beta Kappa member.19 He had to fight for his place on campus, successfully protesting a rule that forced him to re-audition for the debate team when white members were exempt.20 Mays viewed his academic success as objective proof that the Black intellect was completely equal to that of the naturally superior Yankee.21

Chapter 2: The Fugitive Intellectual (1921 to 1934)

In 1921, Mays arrived at the University of Chicago with only forty-five dollars. To save money and avoid prejudiced conductors, he traveled as a “deadhead” passenger, hiding in a linen closet and a vacant upper berth.22 His early career was defined by labor activism. As a Pullman porter, he was fired for organizing a protest for back pay, an experience that cemented his lifelong friendship with union organizer A. Philip Randolph.23

The systemic indignities of segregation continued to haunt him. In one instance, a white waiter in Detroit smashed a glass Mays had used to avoid contamination. For several summers, Mays searched for that specific waiter, admitting he intended to repay him in physical kind.24 This confession highlights his intense internal struggle before fully mastering his own righteous indignation to embrace nonviolent resistance. The deadly reality of Jim Crow was further cemented when his first wife’s sister was struck by a hit-and-run driver in North Augusta, South Carolina. A white ambulance arrived, but upon seeing the victim was a Negro, the driver left her in the street to suffer and die. Mays later wrote that this proved how segregation placed man-made laws above human life, a direct violation of Christian ethics.25

His graduate years were marked by the death of his first wife, Ellen Harvin, in 1923.26 After completing his Master of Arts in New Testament in 1925, he joined the faculty of South Carolina State College, where he met his second wife, Sadie Gray, a social worker who would become his lifelong partner.27

Mays spent the late 1920s balancing academic pursuits with social activism. He served as the executive secretary of the Tampa Urban League from 1926 to 1928, where he nearly lost his job for writing a controversial article titled “It Cost Too Much,” which protested the segregation of a Black high school pageant.28 In 1930, he began a study resulting in The Negro’s Church (1933), co-authored with Joseph Nicholson. The study concluded the Black church was mired in a compensatory folk religion but remained the only oasis where a Black man could truly be somebody.29 During a formative moment in Orangeburg, a white homeowner called him an offensive name for knocking on the front door and calling a Black friend “Mister.” Mays walked away, vowing never to enter a home that required a back-door entrance.30

Chapter 3: The Howard Coup and the Mahatma (1934 to 1940)

Mays was conferred his Ph.D. in religion from the University of Chicago in 1935.31 As Dean of the Howard University School of Religion from 1934 to 1940, Mays pulled off an incredible intellectual coup. He discovered that the Auburn Theological Seminary was merging and selling its library. He persuaded a hesitant Howard administration to buy thirty-nine-thousand volumes for just ten-thousand dollars.32 Mays noted it would have taken Howard seventy-five years to acquire that many books on their current budget.33 This single act transformed Howard into a world-class research center.

Mays was a global citizen who understood that the American racial paradigm was part of an international struggle. This perspective was the bedrock of his 1952 Henry Wright Lectures at Yale Divinity School, later published as The Christian in Race Relations. He warned that American racism was a global contagion. He recalled a 1937 trip to Europe where the American Express Company denied his family tour accommodations in London explicitly because white American tourists would object.34 Refusing to accept the church’s complicity in this oppression, he successfully pushed the World Council of Churches to condemn segregation as a scandal during their historic assemblies.35

In 1937, he traveled to India and spent ninety minutes with Mahatma Gandhi. He specifically asked Gandhi why he did not declare war on the entire caste system rather than just attacking untouchability.36 Mays returned with the realization that the Black American was the “untouchable” of the United States, a concept that refined the nonviolent philosophy he would soon pass to his students.37 His doctoral professor, Shirley Jackson Case, heavily influenced his 1938 book The Negro’s God as Reflected in His Literature. In this text, Mays analyzed traditional Black sermons to show that God’s ultimate goal is to liberate human personality from the tomb of fruitless decay, allowing transformed individuals to elevate their entire communities.38 He argued that if Christianity did not adapt to these social changes, the faith would ossify and die.39

Chapter 4: Morehouse and the Stepchild’s Renaissance (1940 to 1967)

Mays assumed the presidency of Morehouse College on July 1, 1940, when it was the stepchild of the Atlanta University Affiliation and fast becoming a junior college.40 Morale was low, and the endowment had recently dropped.41

Mays adopted an authoritarian yet benevolent administrative style.42 His first act was a hardline demand for the collection of one-hundred-thousand dollars in student debts, earning him the nickname “Buck Benny.”43 He fought a bitter administrative battle to wrest financial control of Morehouse back from Atlanta University’s treasury, which was being managed by Spelman College president Florence Read. He succeeded in restoring the college’s financial autonomy in 1942.44

He was a constant taskmaster regarding academic rigor, raising the percentage of faculty with doctorates from 8.7 percent in 1940 to over 54 percent by 1964.45 He oversaw the construction of eighteen buildings, including the Samuel Archer Health and Physical Education Building.46 He insisted on Black leadership in every area, hiring Black architect Edward C. Miller to design Merrill Hall despite warnings that white subcontractors would refuse his orders.47

Mays centralized power, operating a tightly guarded administration. He surrounded himself with a kitchen cabinet of trusted faculty, including Richard Barksdale in English and Robert Brisbane in political science.48 Behind the scenes, Mays maintained a secret friendship with Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, who privately funded medical scholarships for seventy to eighty Morehouse students between 1943 and 1949.49

Chapter 5: Molding the Prophet and the Young Warriors

The “Morehouse Man” was forged during Mays’s mandatory Tuesday morning chapel talks in Sale Hall.50 He told students the ceiling and not the sky was the limit of their ambition.51 In his 1969 book Disturbed About Man, Mays codified this philosophy, writing that “it is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.”52 He frequently recited an anonymous poem titled “God’s Minute,” reminding students that they had just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.53

Among his early-admission students was a fifteen-year-old Martin Luther King Jr.54 Mays became King’s spiritual and intellectual father, teaching him that the ministry could be a potent platform for social and moral power.55 Mays instilled in King the philosophy of “Black intellectual personalism.” This doctrine held that the inner person is the true site of all profit and loss, and that segregation is evil precisely because it distorts the soul and damages the personality.56 King would later use this exact framework to define justice, arguing that any law that uplifts human personality is just, while any law that degrades it is unjust.57

In 1956, Mays was the sole voice at a meeting to defend King’s decision to return to Montgomery to face arrest, calling any other path the height of cowardice.58 He taught King that the nonviolent man is law-abiding in that he is willing to pay the price when he disobeys unjust laws.59

Mays delivered the benediction at the 1963 March on Washington and, fulfilling a mutual promise made decades earlier, delivered the eulogy at King’s funeral in 1968.60 The text of this eulogy, preserved in his 1969 book Disturbed About Man, reveals the depth of their theological bond. Mays fiercely rejected the comforting platitude that King was ahead of his time. He declared that no man is ahead of his time, insisting that King, like the biblical prophets, was compelled to respond to God’s call in his own generation.61 Mays praised King’s profound moral courage, noting it took far more bravery to face police dogs without a weapon than it took for a cowardly assassin to fire a fatal shot.62

The late 1960s brought unprecedented challenges to Mays’s authority. On April 18 and 19, 1969, a group of nine students staged a lock-in of the Morehouse Board of Trustees.63 The students took control of the administration building and held the board locked in the room for nearly twenty-eight and a half hours, demanding that the Atlanta University Center be renamed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. University.64 The students even attempted to deny Mays the use of the telephone to call his wife to assure her of his safety.65 Mays, present as an ex-officio member, remained stoic. He refused to negotiate under duress but also refused to call the police, protecting the students from potential state violence.66

Chapter 6: The Public Statesman

Mays’s influence extended far beyond the campus. In 1942, he co-authored the Durham Statement, a manifesto where Southern Black leaders collectively challenged the white South to live up to democracy during World War II, leading directly to the founding of the Southern Regional Council.67 In 1946, he was part of a delegation of leaders who met with President Harry S. Truman at the White House to pledge support for an anti-lynching bill.68

He was a tireless advocate for the desegregation of the church. In his 1952 Henry Wright Lectures at Yale Divinity School, he pointed out the hypocrisy of American society, noting that the Christian Church was often more rigidly segregated than professional baseball, professional boxing, or even the organized illegal liquor traffic.69 In his 1957 book Seeking to be Christian in Race Relations, Mays introduced a profound psychological argument. He stated that segregation does not just crush the manhood of the oppressed; it destroys the soul of the oppressor. He wrote that the barriers we erect against others become prison bars to our own souls.70 He also recounted a powerful anecdote about foreign relations, describing how a group of Asian, African, and Haitian students visiting a Southern city protested and abandoned their project when the African and Haitian students were forced into segregated housing.71

In his 1969 work Disturbed About Man, Mays delivered a biting critique of the modern church. He argued that modern society tries to get rid of Jesus not by crucifying him, but by praising his name and building costly cathedrals while simultaneously putting chemists to work to discover the deadliest gases and preparing for war.72 He also expanded the biblical definition of “the least of these,” arguing that it does not just mean the financially poor. He pointed out that millionaires who commit suicide, the educated who die of cancer, and even the President of the United States agonizing over the Vietnam War are all, in their moments of helplessness, the least of these.73

When the Supreme Court banned school segregation in 1954, Mays publicly dismissed fears of a Southern revolt as “poppycock,” stating that the good people of the South would not stand for violence.74 He praised the United Negro College Fund in 1959 for raising thirty-seven-million dollars since 1944.75 In 1970, he became the first of his race to deliver the commencement address at Emory University.76

Chapter 7: The Atlanta Compromise (1969 to 1981)

Following his retirement from Morehouse, Mays was elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 1969, becoming its first Black president in January 1970.77 He served in this capacity for twelve consecutive years during a period of intense racial transition.78 His tenure was defined by the Atlanta Compromise of February 20, 1973.79 Facing federal court orders for school desegregation, Mays and a biracial committee negotiated a plan that prioritized administrative equity over massive busing, a decision that directly shaped the future of newly integrated Southwest Atlanta institutions like West Manor Elementary and Southwest High School.80

The national NAACP, utilizing a plan drawn by Dr. Michael J. Stolee, demanded the busing of 33,664 Black students and 16,759 white students to achieve a 55.9 percent Black ratio in each school.81 Mays argued that such a plan was ridiculous and would trigger catastrophic white flight.82 The final compromise bused only 2,761 students.83 Instead of busing, Mays secured the appointment of Black professionals to the majority of top administrative positions, including the city’s first Black superintendent, Dr. Alonzo A. Crim.84

Critics charged that Mays had traded away the integration of students for job security for a few middle-class Black professionals.85 However, Mays maintained that a Black child did not need to sit next to a white child to receive a first-rate education.86 He famously noted that Atlanta’s school districts were like a giant powdered-sugar jelly doughnut, white on the outside and dark in the center.87 His focus on the internal health of the student led to the September 1981 opening of the Benjamin E. Mays High School, an $18.7 million showcase facility.88 Despite initial opposition from residents on Sewell Road (now Benjamin E. Mays Drive)—a major artery through the Cascade Heights and Lynn Valley corridors originally named for a pioneer family whose descendants advocated for segregationist buffers—the change to Benjamin E. Mays Drive was codified to honor his contribution.89

Chapter 8: Color Commentary in the Courier and Christian Ethics

The weekly columns Mays produced for the Pittsburgh Courier and his published books served as a window into his soul. They were not merely a record of his political stances but a real-time chronicle of a philosopher wrestling with the human condition. He was a man who demanded absolute accountability from those in power, warning against the tyranny of a high office and reminding his readers that political leaders must never think they are above the law.90 Yet, his rigid moralism was tempered by a profound pastoral grace. When Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, Mays did not revel in the political victory. Instead, he explored the depths of human frailty in “Sympathy and Empathy For Nixon,” demonstrating a complex compassion for the fallen president.91

This same theological wrestling was evident in his books. In his 1969 work Disturbed About Man, Mays laid out a radical interpretation of Christian ethics. He challenged comfortable piety by urging readers to be kind to Judas, arguing that Judas at least possessed a conscience that drove him to remorse and suicide, whereas the respectable Pontius Pilate simply washed his hands of responsibility and kept on living in sin.92 Furthermore, Mays equated the self-righteous attitude of the biblical Pharisees with the modern “Nordic complex” and white supremacy, asserting that both were spiritual sicknesses that alienated man from God.93

Mays also used his platform to construct a pantheon of Black excellence. He penned a special tribute to Fred Patterson, ensuring the public understood the monumental achievement of founding the United Negro College Fund.94 He celebrated local economic empowerment by saluting Georgia businessman Jesse Hill, recognizing that civic progress required financial independence.95 His devotion to his most famous student remained unwavering, evidenced by his public advocacy for the establishment of the King Center as a birthday gift to Coretta Scott King.96

He was fiercely critical of white philanthropy, noting that it takes the philanthropic world a long time to make up its mind when it comes to Black institutions.97 He tackled the “Raising of the I.Q.” in 1959, arguing that intelligence was not static and could be improved through better environmental conditions.98 He demanded that the government lead the way in desegregation, writing in 1959 that the government has done a marvelous job in desegregating the Army.99 He praised the integration of Negroes in the National League in 1959, noting that baseball had proven that integration works.100 Through these writings, Mays revealed himself not just as a critic of white supremacy, but as a tender, fiercely loyal guardian of Black institutional memory and human dignity.

Conclusion: The Last Fond Hope

In his final years, Mays remained politically active. He opposed tuition tax credits in 1981, arguing they struck at the foundation of public education.101 In 1980, he experienced a moment of profound reconciliation when his portrait was hung in the South Carolina State House. He declared that he was no longer an alien in his native state and felt as free as the wind that blows.102 In 1983, he served as a co-chairman for the presidential campaign of Senator Ernest Hollings, describing him as a man of integrity who would do what is just and fair.103

Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays died of pneumonia on the morning of March 28, 1984, in an Atlanta hospital at the age of eighty-nine.104 He was interred at the Benjamin E. Mays Historic Site in Greenwood, South Carolina, where his birth home was preserved as a museum.105 His administrative legacy remains visible in the Benjamin E. Mays Chair in Urban Education at Georgia State University, funded by a one-million-dollar effort.106 He left behind a world where the Morehouse Man could finally walk the earth with dignity, proving his lifelong creed that the tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency.107 As Newt Gingrich noted in a 1988 tribute, Mays devoted his life to a persistent struggle and a gradual progression towards equality for all Americans.108

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  • The Evening Index. (1898, November 10). Tolberts Shot.
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  1. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 1.
  2. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 8.
  3. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 11.
  4. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 13.
  5. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 71.
  6. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 13.
  7. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 13.
  8. “In remembrance of Benjamin E. Mays,” The Index-Journal, Mar 28, 2014, p. 8.
  9. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 14.
  10. “Four Negroes Lynched Yesterday Afternoon,” The Evening Index, Nov 10, 1898, p. 1.
  11. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 415.
  12. “Benjamin E. Mays Historic Site breaks ground on addition,” The Index-Journal, Nov 15, 2024, p. 1.
  13. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 15.
  14. “Excellent beginning: Mays Legacy Project,” The Index-Journal, Feb 20, 2021, p. 7.
  15. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 17.
  16. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 19.
  17. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 20.
  18. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 133.
  19. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 21.
  20. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 21.
  21. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 127.
  22. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 18.
  23. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 20.
  24. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 19.
  25. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), pp. 52-53.
  26. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 23.
  27. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 25.
  28. Randal M. Jelks, “History: Benjamin Elijah Mays and the Creation of an Insurgent Negro Professional Clergy,” The A.M.E. Church Review, Vol. 118, Iss. 387, July-September 2002, p. 34.
  29. Randal M. Jelks, “History: Benjamin Elijah Mays and the Creation of an Insurgent Negro Professional Clergy,” The A.M.E. Church Review, Vol. 118, Iss. 387, July-September 2002, p. 32.
  30. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 30.
  31. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 241.
  32. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays,” Atlanta Daily World, Jun 8, 1940, p. 4.
  33. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 216.
  34. Benjamin E. Mays, Seeking to be Christian in Race Relations (Friendship Press, 1957), p. 45.
  35. Benjamin E. Mays, Seeking to be Christian in Race Relations (Friendship Press, 1957), p. 46.
  36. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 76.
  37. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 75.
  38. Benjamin E. Mays, The Negro’s God, As Reflected in His Literature (New York, Russell & Russell, 1938), p. 81.
  39. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 75.
  40. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 199.
  41. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 110.
  42. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 111.
  43. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 112.
  44. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 119.
  45. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 140.
  46. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 178.
  47. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 176.
  48. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays,” The Atlanta Constitution, Aug 21, 1981, p. 4A.
  49. “Mays’ Secret,” The Index-Journal, Sep 22, 2010, p. 2.
  50. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 161.
  51. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays,” The Atlanta Constitution, Aug 21, 1981, p. 4A.
  52. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 124.
  53. “Remembering Dr. Benjamin E. Mays’ Legacy,” Chicago Defender (Online), Jun 6, 2011.
  54. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 59.
  55. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 71.
  56. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 70.
  57. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 71.
  58. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 20.
  59. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 209.
  60. Micah Hart Harris, “How Political Action Shapes the Actor: The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.,” PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 2024, p. 353.
  61. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 17.
  62. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 15.
  63. “Morehouse Trustees Nullify Agreements During Lock-In,” The Atlanta Voice, Apr 27, 1969, p. 1.
  64. “Dr. Mays Tells Of Atlanta Lock-In,” The Pittsburgh Courier, May 3, 1969, p. 2.
  65. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 314.
  66. Dereck Joseph Rovaris, “Developer of an institution: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse College president, 1940-1967,” PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990, p. 173.
  67. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), pp. 216-218.
  68. “President Pledges Anti-Lynch Bill Aid: Delegation Of Leaders At White House,” Atlanta Daily World, Sep 22, 1946, p. 1.
  69. Benjamin E. Mays, The Christian in Race Relations (Promoting Enduring Peace, 1952), p. 7.
  70. Benjamin E. Mays, Seeking to be Christian in Race Relations (Friendship Press, 1957), p. 35.
  71. Benjamin E. Mays, Seeking to be Christian in Race Relations (Friendship Press, 1957), p. 39.
  72. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 131.
  73. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), pp. 57-58.
  74. “Segregation Ban Won’t Bring Revolt, Mays Says,” The Atlanta Constitution, Feb 5, 1954, p. 11.
  75. “United College Fund Praised by Dr. Mays,” The Atlanta Constitution, Oct 12, 1959, p. 22.
  76. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Speaks To Emory Grads,” Atlanta Daily World, Jun 12, 1970, p. 4.
  77. Mike Bowler, “Mays Elected Chairman of School Board,” The Atlanta Constitution, Jan 3, 1970, p. 1A.
  78. Diane Stepp, “Mays Is Reelected School Board Chief,” The Atlanta Constitution, Jan 5, 1971, p. 8A.
  79. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 113.
  80. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 109.
  81. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 107.
  82. Frank Wells, “Dr. Mays Doubts U.S. Court Will Approve School Plan,” The Atlanta Constitution, Nov 17, 1972, p. 1A.
  83. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 115.
  84. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 113.
  85. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 142.
  86. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 180.
  87. Wei-ling Gong, “Race, class, and Atlanta public school integration, 1954-1991,” PhD Dissertation, Emory University, 1992, p. 24.
  88. Sharon J. Salyer, “Atlanta Ready To Unveil Showcase Mays School,” The Atlanta Constitution, Sep 2, 1981, p. 15A.
  89. Donna Williams, “Road’s Name Change Draws Opposition,” The Atlanta Constitution, Jun 11, 1981, p. D7.
  90. Benjamin E. Mays, “The Tyranny of a High Office,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Dec 26, 1959, p. 11.
  91. Benjamin E. Mays, “Sympathy and Empathy For Nixon,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Dec 7, 1974, p. 6.
  92. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 67.
  93. Benjamin E. Mays, Disturbed About Man (John Knox Press, 1969), p. 68.
  94. Benjamin E. Mays, “A Special Tribute To Fred Patterson,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Apr 19, 1975, p. 8.
  95. Benjamin E. Mays, “Paying a Salute to Georgia’s Jesse Hill,” The Pittsburgh Courier, May 26, 1973, p. 6.
  96. Benjamin E. Mays, “Birthday Gift to Dr. King’s Widow,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Feb 10, 1973, p. 6.
  97. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 189.
  98. Benjamin E. Mays, “Raising the I. Q.,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Sep 12, 1959, p. 29.
  99. Benjamin E. Mays, “The Government Should Lead the Way,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Oct 17, 1959, p. 13.
  100. Benjamin E. Mays, “Negroes in the National League,” The Pittsburgh Courier, Oct 24, 1959, p. 33.
  101. “Tax Credits On Tuition Opposed,” The Atlanta Constitution, Oct 13, 1981, p. 14A.
  102. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (University of Georgia Press, 2003), p. 46.
  103. Greg McDonald, “Atlantan Benjamin Mays named to Hollings presidential campaign,” The Atlanta Constitution, Mar 17, 1983, p. 3A.
  104. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays” (Obituary), Atlanta Daily World, Mar 30, 1984, p. 6.
  105. “Benjamin E. Mays Historic Site breaks ground on addition,” The Index-Journal, Nov 15, 2024, p. 1.
  106. Donna Williams Lewis, “Crim says he’ll take job with GSU in ’88,” The Atlanta Constitution, 1988.
  107. “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Speaks,” The Index-Journal, Jul 5, 2020, p. 7.
  108. Newt Gingrich, “Notes On Self Government: A Tribute To Benjamin E. Mays,” Atlanta Daily World, Mar 13, 1988, p. 4.
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