Benjamin Mays stepped down from the Morehouse presidency in 1967 continuing to work as a leader in the African American community through national social tours.
24 Facts About Benjamin Mays
2.
Benjamin Mays presided over the Atlanta Board of Education from 1969 to 1978, where he initiated the racial desegregation of Atlanta.
3.
Benjamin Mays has, since 1995, been entombed on the campus of Morehouse, with his wife, Sadie Gray, after an initial burial in Augusta.
4.
Benjamin Elijah Mays was born on August 1,1894, in Epworth, South Carolina, in the small county of Greenwood, South Carolina, the youngest of eight children.
5.
Benjamin Mays graduated in 1916, aged 22 as its valedictorian.
6.
Benjamin Mays ignored his warnings and enrolled in 1917, aged 23.
7.
In 1924, upon hearing news that there was to be a fraternity meeting in St Louis, Missouri, Benjamin Mays traveled by train.
8.
Much of the money he had earned growing up was spent financing his time at Bates, on Christmas Day 1921, Benjamin Mays held only 45 dollars.
9.
Benjamin Mays traveled to Atlanta in 1921 and served as a pastor at the Shiloh Baptist Church until 1923.
10.
In 1932, Benjamin Mays returned to the University of Chicago with the intent of completing a Ph.
11.
Benjamin Mays secured a multi-million dollar package from donors by 1930, and was averaging yearly contributions of $750,000 during the Great Depression.
12.
In January 1940, Benjamin Mays was secretly approached by John Hervey Wheeler, a trustee of Morehouse College, to see if he was interested in an upcoming search for the college's next president.
13.
On March 10,1940, Benjamin Mays was offered the presidency of Morehouse by its trustees; he moved to Atlanta shortly after.
14.
Benjamin Mays was offered the presidency on March 10 and inaugurated the sixth president on August 1,1940.
15.
Benjamin Mays received an honorary doctorate and the "Alumnus of the Year" Award from Bates College in 1947 and the University of Chicago in 1949, respectively.
16.
In 1966, as president, Benjamin Mays was invited to sit at an Atlanta Braves baseball game as a guest-of-honor by Jackie Robinson when the sports franchise moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta.
17.
Benjamin Mays gave the benediction at the close of the official program of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.
18.
Benjamin Mays ended his social tours in the early 1980s, giving a total of 250 commencement addresses at colleges, universities, and schools.
19.
At age seventy-five, Benjamin Mays was elected president of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, where he supervised the peaceful desegregation of Atlanta's public schools as a consequence of the 1970 federal court order.
20.
On July 28,1974, Benjamin Mays signed the alignment order declaring that the Atlanta School System was unitary.
21.
On July 1,1973, Benjamin Mays appointed Alonzo Crim as the first African-American superintendent of schools, which was met with backlash from the other board members and city officials.
22.
Benjamin Mays died on March 28,1984, in Atlanta, Georgia.
23.
Benjamin Mays was initially buried at South-View Cemetery, but in May 1995 his body was entombed on the campus of Morehouse College along with his wife Sadie.
24.
Benjamin Mays was awarded 40 of them during his lifetime and as of February 2018, he has received 56 honorary degrees.