Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About the American Civil Rights Movement, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Funeral rites. 44 items in 15 collections She said the institutional will to change was there, but it took a lot of work from her and other students of color. It's not failure but aiming too low, that is life's greatest tragedy. Like many institutions and individuals, Bates is growing into its own aspirations in a lot of ways, said Alicia Hunter Warner 94, a member of the Alumni Council of the Bates Alumni Association. In 1965 Mays was instrumental in King's election to the Morehouse board of trustees. (:10) (MAIN TITLE) Admissions: (803) 536-7186 . Not in you living above your means, but below your capacity. Benjamin E. Mays Unique, Men, Doe 183 Copy quote We, today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. Student publications that Nero projected showed deep engagement with the 1968 elections. Please enter your name and e-mail address to receive updates from Bates College. Pictures. In other words, he is declaring his own agency, his own command of his future. He attended Morehouse College, where he became friends with the future leader of the NAACP, W. E. B. Tomorrow may not be better, but we must believe that it will be. New subscriber? Benjamin E. Mays 18941984 Mays continued to support King throughout his life, delivering the benediction at the 1963, and endorsing Kings decision to speak out against the. Mays, Benjamin E. Lord, the People Have Driven Me On. Many of those who spoke up during the talk agreed that emancipation, for Bates, is ongoing. Mays also had a lasting influence on Kings intellectual life. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Mays accepted and moved to Atlanta. Mays argued that many blacks believed God to be intimately involved in and mindful of their condition as an oppressed group. Contained in Mays idea of emancipation, Nero said, were three additional heavy concepts: religion, gender, and citizenship all of which Mays used to reject white supremacy. We, today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. At Morehouse, Mays mentored future civil rights leaders, including the Rev. The most lust Benjamin E. Mays quotes that will add value to your life. Du Bois. "Benjamin E. Mays: Last of the Great Schoolmasters." Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other. So did Mays I thought I would go north for college to compete with whites, he wrote in the Bulletin. Benjamin Mays was Morehouse Colleges president from 1940 to 1967. The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities. Mays was born in the small town of Ninety-Six in South Carolina to former slave parents. April 4, 2018 8:00 AM EDT. Ralph Abernathy leading the service for Martin Luther King, Jr. at South View Cemetery. A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things. This dissertation is an intellectual biography of Benjamin Elijah Mays. Topics. Benjamin E. Mays (middle, back row) poses with a 1919 debate team. Mays was born in South Carolina on August 1, 1894, outside a town in . Dr. Melvin L. Oliver is the current college president, having led the institution since 1999. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library). He worked his way through college and graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1918. Read more, Georgia State University. Published on June 14, 2019. Garry W. Jenkins, who became Bates' ninth president on July 1, used Wednesday as his get-to-know-Bates day. Dr. Mays was a member of the Atlanta Board of Education from 1969 to 1981. It isn't a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. As the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta for 21 years, he guided the institution as it rose to the top ranks of the nations historically black colleges. Morehouse and the ITC were impacted by Mays actions. Mays returned to Morehouse College in 1934, where he served as dean of the school of religion. To donate, please visit, www.scsu.edu/give and select the125th Anniversary/Annual Fund from the menu. Mays was offered a position as dean in the School of Religion by Howard Universitys president, Modecai Johnson, in 1934. . Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. On Morehouse Colleges campus, Mays was laid to rest alongside his beloved wife, Sadie, who died at the age of 90. Benjamin E. Mays, the Morehouse president who is considered the architect of the college's reputation for excellence, proved to be an incomparable inspiration to King. Benjamin E. Mays. Resisting white supremacy also meant asserting his manhood, Nero said. He also played a key role in the desegregation of public schools in the United States. Updates? Beyond Morehouse, Mays continued to devote a good part of his life to the African American community, both in Atlanta and around the nation. (expand all), Some content (or its descriptions) found on this site may be harmful and difficult to view. He entitled his autobiography, published in 1971, Born to Rebel. When Mays assumed the presidency, Morehouse was suffering from a small endowment, dilapidated buildings, and a declining academic reputation. King,Mastering Our Fears, 21 July 1957, in Papers 6:319321. 29 Jun. Finding himself equal to the academic challenges, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1920 at the age of 26. degree in 1925. In 1944, Mays early admission program at Morehouse brought 15-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. to Morehouse, and Mays became the future civil rights icons intellectual and spiritual mentor. Benjamin E. Mays Class of 1920 - 'Schoolmaster of the Movement' Class of 1920 'Schoolmaster of the Revolution' Benjamin Elijah Mays was born in South Carolina in 1894 to former slaves. Mays, Benjamin E. The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature. We provide access to these materials to preserve the historical record, but we do not endorse the attitudes, prejudices, or behaviors found within them. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. 187 Copy quote Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done. At the divinity school of the University of Chicago, he earned an M.A. Du Bois. "In chapel he would say, 'There are three great men in this world -- Martin Luther King Jr., Mordecai Wyatt Johnson and Benjamin Elijah Mays, and the greatest of these is Benjamin Elijah Mays.' Recruited to become president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, he navigated the college through. Benjamin E. Mays was a prominent educator, minister and civil rights activist. . It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. As was typical for black children in the south at that time, his school year was very short, about four months, to prevent education from interfering with work in the fields. Mays wrote, Bates College did not emancipate me; it did far greater service of making it possible for me to emancipate myself and to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man.. Mays left Morehouse in 1967 but remained an active public speaker and adviser to colleges just before joining the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education to help supervise the citys school desegregation policies. After his retirement in 1967, Mays won election to the Atlanta Board of Education in 1969. The late 1960s was, of course, a time when social structures of all kinds came under scrutiny. Mays died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984. Dr. Marvin L. Oliver served as the schools president for a total of 17 years, from 1978 to 2004. Perhaps most widely known as the president of Morehouse College between 1940 and 1967, Mays was also an accomplished public theologian, a vocal civil rights activist, and a dedicated educator. Mays continued his education at the University of Chicago, where he earned a masters degree in 1925. Benjamin E. Mays, an influential civil rights leader, educator and theologian, died on March 28, 1984, at the age of 84. Mays was a distinguished scholar of the black church and black religion. Education : Bates College, B.A., 1920; University of Chicago, M.A., 1925, Ph.D., 1935. He was buried in the Southview Cemetery in Atlanta. SC State is celebrating 125 of years of education, service and excellence by highlighting many of the universitys successful and influential alumni. Mays returned to Chicago the following year, and in 1925, completed work on his Divinity School masters thesis entitled Pagan Survivals in Christianity Mays planned to continue his studies toward a Ph.D., but once more was compelled by circumstances to return to teaching, this time at his old alma mater, South Carolina State. She said that, as the only black woman in her class, she went to many such workshops and conversations and did not appreciate how black students were automatically assumed to be disadvantaged. Nero is the Benjamin E. Mays 20 Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies. During his tenure, he supervised the desegregation of schools and appointed the first African American superintendent of schools. He also excelled academically and graduated with honors. He was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and worked tirelessly to end segregation and discrimination. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. I think that there is hope for how were changing and what were doing as a community, but I do think that we cannot ignore what institutionalized racism in this country is. I could see in their lives the ideal of what I wanted a minister to be, King commented in a 1956 interview (Peters,Our Weapon Is Love). I learned that God was no respecter of persons and that I was right in not believing what I had heard in my childhood that Negroes were inferior, he wrote in the Alumnus. As an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, Benjamin E. Mays challenges students to understand the world around them and how to take action within it. With constant encouragement, many of Mays recruits flourished. In 1930 the Institute of Social and Religious Research in New York City asked Mays and Joseph W. Nicholson, a minister in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, to survey black churches in twelve cities and four rural areas. He was a leader in the NAACP and the World Council of Churches, and was an advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. Committed to fighting racial inequality, Mays accused the African American community of complacency in the face of oppression, and he prodded the Black church into From the late 16th c He was a respected educator and mentor to many young African Americans, including the future civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. On October 19, 1984, Benjamin Mays died of a heart attack in his home in Atlanta, Georgia. Having been homeschooled by his older sister, Mays initially attended a Baptist-sponsored school in Epworth before enrolling in the high school department at SC State, known then as Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina. Between 1847 and 1856, Stuart was the countrys next president. Called the schoolmaster of the movement, Mays spoke passionately about the importance of education and for the desegregation of schools. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Lane Hall He served for six years, and during that time graduate enrollment increased, the quality of the faculty improved, and the school's library was substantially augmented. For some, the burgeoning womens movement was more salient at the time, women at Bates lived under more restrictive social rules than men. Following is a list of the best Benjamin E. Mays quotes, including various Benjamin E. Mays inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Benjamin E. Mays. I could see in their lives the ideal of what I wanted a minister to be, King commented in a 1956 interview (Peters, ). In 1940, he became president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he would serve until his retirement in 1967. Mays also had a lasting influence on Kings intellectual life. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. During his tenure, the percentage of faculty with Ph.D.s increased from 8.7 percent to 54 percent, and the physical plant and campus underwent numerous improvements. //. While the senior King assembled acquaintances to dissuade the younger from continuing to lead the Montgomery bus boycott, it was Mays who heard Kingsunspoken plea and strongly defended his position (King, 145). The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. Benjamin E. Mays. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College). Still a constellation of construction hotspots, but with Bates folks scheduled to return in August, Chase Hall had a certain air of anticipation last week something along the lines of, Is it Christmas yet?". His father wanted him to get an education, but his mother was afraid that he would be mistreated because of his race. Mays, Benjamin E. Born to Rebel. When the Montgomery, Alabama, police indicted over 80 boycott leaders to stop the, unspoken plea and strongly defended his position (King, 145). Mays remained active throughout the 1970s, becoming the first black president of the Atlanta Board of Education as well as serving on the Advisory Council of the Peace Corps, the board of directors of the United Negro College Fund, and the board of the National Commission for UNESCO. document.getElementById( "ak_js" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 15 Rare Black History Facts Youve Never Heard. Just ahead of taking the president post at Morehouse College on this same day in 1940, Mays spoke with human rights leader Mahatma Gandhi and that discussion moved him to embrace nonviolence and peaceful resistance which formed the early foundations of the civil rights movement. Nero then asked his audience to consider emancipation as it related to their time at Bates. According to King, his ministerial aspirations were deeply influenced by Mays and Morehouse professorGeorge Kelsey. Mays then returned to South Carolina and SC State, where he taught English. In 1940, Mays became the president ofMorehouse College, a position he held for the next 24 years. It means a meaningful life, says psychologist Jill Reich, On his get-to-know-campus day, President Garry Jenkins meets many Bates folks and embraces them all, Bates responds to Supreme Court ruling in LGBTQ+ case. ed. Small wonder that I love Bates College!, 2 Andrews Road Learn more . South Carolina Political Collections University of South Carolina. . Born on August 1, 1894 in Greenwood County, South Carolina, Mays was the youngest of eight children of former slaves Hezekiah Mays and Louvenia Carter Mays. The NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal, its highest honor. He excelled in his studies and went on to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders of his generation. Robert Chute, a popular professor of biology, wrote a thundering letter demanding radical changes in admissions, financial aid, and the curriculum. It isn't a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Benjamin E. Mays For many years the noted philosopher, critic, and theologian Cornel West has been exploring a distinctively African-American brand of philosophy that he has labeled prophetic pragmatism. He said his life's greatest honor was that he was able to serve as a mentor to Martin Luther King, Junior. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College), He is rejecting this idea of emancipation, the idea of emancipation that is in this statue which surely he knew, he added. Arguably the most influential alumnus in South Carolina State Universitys 125-year history, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays was a legendary pioneer in both higher education and the Civil Rights Era. Although he was active as a pastor for only a few years in the early 1920s, he became a familiar presence in the affairs of the National Baptist Convention and in several ecumenical organizations. Known for: Born to rebel (1971) The Negro's Church (1933) Seeking to be Christian in race relations (1946) . They have won all but one of their games and are currently ranked fourth in the state. In 1944 he became vice president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, a national organization of mainline Protestant denominations. Martin Luther King Jr., a Morehouse graduate, who called Mays my spiritual mentor and my intellectual father. Mays gave the eulogy at Kings funeral. Not failure, but low aim is sin. From Orangeburg, Mays went on to another historically black institution, Virginia Union University in Richmond, and then on to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Reprint, Ebony 59, no. In 1978, he became the first African American to hold the position. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, Mays, Benjamin E. (Benjamin Elijah), 1894-1984, Interview with Constance Curry, August 8, 1997, Martin Luther King Sr. congratulating Benjamin Mays with a "Shining Light" award for their humanitarian service, 1981, Mayor Andrew Young meeting with President Jimmy Carter and Dr. Benjamin Mays during a ceremony, 1979, University of South Carolina.
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