Encyclopedia article about Benjamin Mays, the longtime president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and among the most articulate and outspoken critics of segregation before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the United States. Mays also filled a leadership role in several significant national and international organizations, among them the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the International Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), the World Council of Churches, the United Negro College Fund, the National Baptist Convention, the Urban League, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, the Southern Conference Educational Fund, and the Peace Corps Advisory Committee. Mays attended Bates College in Maine and the University of Chicago.

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Cite as: "Benjamin Mays (ca. 1894-1984)," New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved [date]: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.

Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.