Activism Of Benjamin Elijah Mays

For my Black Georgian assignment, I will be discussing the life and activism of one African American minister, educator, leading black voice, and former Morehouse College President, Benjamin Elijah Mays. Mays was an African American born into a new generation of freedom. However, throughout his life, he would experience the hardships and hindrances known to affect the black community in the 1890’s – 1900’s. Mays served his community as a leading advocate for racial equality, ending segregation, and the strengthening of young black men (and women) in their quest for equality. This paper aims to describe the life, works, views, actions, and influence that Benjamin Mays exhibited.

Segregation, racial inequality, discrimination, disfranchisement,

During his years as a youth, Benjamin Mays would regularly attend school, eagerly pursuing a fix for his incredible appetite for education. Mays suffered from restrictions in many aspects of his youth, with education being the forefront of them, causing a burning desire to break through those walls hindering him from his passion. Along with his educational pursuit, as Mays grew older, he found these societal issues to be prominent in one specific area: Atlanta, Georgia. Mays wrote in his book Born To Rebel, “It was in Atlanta, Georgia, that I was to see the race problem in greater depth, and observe and experience it in larger dimensions.” “It was in Atlanta that I was to find that the cruel tentacles of race prejudice reached out to invade and distort every aspect of Southern life,” 3 Mays continued. All of these points are evidence to the question of why Mays decided to become an

He was raised a farm boy, the youngest of eight children in his family. Mays provides evidence of his exposure at a young to the segregated and divided south, where it is said that he mentions his first memory being the 1898 Phoenix Riot where “he recalled, white vigilantes murdered his cousin.” 4 As mentioned before, Mays’ obsession with education started at a young age – he loved education to the point of tears if he’d ever had to miss a day due to rain. The segregated south prohibited Mays from excelling in his educational studies - by the age of 17 years old, Mays had only been to school 4 months out of each year. Some of his early struggles regarding his pursuit included poverty, as well as his father’s wish for him to continue working in the farm. Despite these roadblocks, Benjamin Mays graduated from his high school as valedictorian of the Black South Carolina State College in 1916. Mays would further his education by pursuing a college career – he felt that his educational gain would prove to himself and others that he has the ability to compete with white people of