Black History Makers: Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

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"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream...Not failure, but low aim is sin."--Quote from Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, legendary President Emeritus of Morehouse College

Benjamin E. Mays (above) was born in 1895 in the small town of Ninety-Six, South Carolina to parents who had been born in slavery and freed shortly after the end of the Civil War. A young Mays showed an excellent penchant for learning, particularly mathematics, in his early years at a laboratory school connected to what would become South Carolina State University, an HBCU. Mays then continued his education at Virginia Union University, an HBCU noted for educating Baptist ministers, and Bates College in Maine, an integrated private institution. 

After completing graduate studies at the University of Chicago, Mays was ordained a minister and served as a pastor and professor at Morehouse College (while holding leadership positions in the National Urban League and the YMCA). In 1934, Mays was named the founding Dean of the Howard University School of Religion and in 1940, he was named President of Morehouse College.

As World War II found many American men—including Blacks—drafted into the United States military, President Mays, concerned about the declining enrollment at all male Morehouse, initiated a program which allowed talented high school boys to gain early admission. Among those students was a 15-year old Martin Luther King, son of prominent Ebenezer Baptist Church Pastor (and Morehouse Man) Martin Luther King, Sr.; the younger King remained close to Mays until his assassination in 1968. 

President Mays and his prized pupil, Dr. Martin Luther King

Mays, a member of the Omega Psi Phi social Fraternity, was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and during his presidency at Morehouse, established a chapter on campus, making the College one of several HBCU's to hold such distinction (including Fisk University, Howard University, and Spelman College). Mays, a noted theologian and philosopher, was also an author who penned the very first sociological study of African-American religion, The Negro's Church, in 1933. Mays also authored The Negro's God, Disturbed About Man, and his critically acclaimed autobiography, Born to Rebel.  

Mays, aided in his life's work by his loving wife Sadie (above), died in 1984 in Atlanta. The couple's remains are interred in a crypt that stands before Graves Hall (below), Morehouse's iconic dormitory and symbol of academic excellence. 

Lest we forget...