Benjamin E. Mays

“It started here in a log cabin and a cottonpatch. If it hadn’t been for Benjamin Mays, thereprobably wouldn’t have been a Martin Luther King.” So said Ambassador Andrew Young as hespoke at the dedication of the Benjamin E. Mays Historical Preservation Site in Greenwood,South Carolina on April 26, 2011. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, who was born in 1894 to formerslaves, was an adviser to Presidents, mentor of mentors like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., laudedpreacher and scholar, advocate for social justice, and the president of Morehouse College from1940 to 1967. He was a remarkable man and role model for thousands of students who enteredthe doors of Morehouse, Spelman College, Atlanta University, Clark and Morris BrownColleges, and the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, the schools that constituted thebroader Atlanta University Center of Black higher education.