Benjamin Elijah Mays was born to formerly enslaved parents in rural South Carolina and pursued education relentlessly despite limited early opportunities, eventually earning a PhD from the University of Chicago at a time when very few Black Americans held doctoral degrees.
In 1940, Mays was appointed president of Morehouse College, a position he held for 27 years, during which he transformed the institution into one of the nation's most respected centres of Black male higher education, insisting on rigorous academic standards and moral leadership.
Among the students Mays mentored during his Morehouse presidency was a young Martin Luther King Jr., who considered Mays his 'spiritual mentor' and intellectual father figure, crediting Mays's teachings on nonviolence and moral courage as formative to his later civil rights leadership.
When King was assassinated in 1968, Mays delivered his eulogy, a role that reflected the depth of their relationship spanning King's entire adult life. Mays continued his own public advocacy for civil rights and educational opportunity until his death in 1984, having shaped generations of Black leaders through his Morehouse presidency.
- Served as president of Morehouse College for 27 years, transforming its academic reputation
- Mentored Martin Luther King Jr., who considered him his spiritual mentor
- Delivered the eulogy at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral in 1968
- Earned a PhD from the University of Chicago at a time when few Black Americans held doctorates
- Shaped generations of Black leaders through his decades of educational leadership
- Mentorship can shape world history. His guidance of a young Martin Luther King Jr. helped form the moral foundation of the civil rights movement.
- Long tenure builds lasting institutions. His 27 years at Morehouse allowed deep, generational transformation.
- Moral leadership and academic rigour reinforce each other. Mays insisted on both intellectual excellence and ethical character in equal measure.
- A life's influence can be measured in the students it shapes. His legacy lives most visibly through the leaders he mentored.