[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 14, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S1388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DR. BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I rise today to bring the country's 
attention to one of its most gifted educators, civil rights leaders and 
theologians, the late Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, and to again encourage 
the President to award Dr. Mays a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dr. 
Mays lived an extraordinary life that began in a very unextraordinary 
setting. The son of slaves, Dr. Mays grew up in the rural community of 
Epworth, South Carolina where poverty and racism were everyday 
realities and the church was sometimes the only solace to be found. 
Yet, as the title of Dr. Mays' autobiography, ``Born to Rebel'' 
reveals, he was never satisfied with the status quo and looked to 
education as the key to his own success, and later the key to sweeping 
social change.
  After working his way through South Carolina College, Bates College 
and a doctoral program at the University of Chicago, Dr. Mays worked as 
a teacher, an urban league representative and later dean of the School 
of Religion at Howard University here in Washington. Then, in 1940, he 
took the reins at Morehouse College and--to borrow a phrase--the rest 
was history. As President of Morehouse, Dr. Mays took an ailing 
institution and transformed it into one of America's most vital 
academic centers and an epicenter for the growing civil rights 
movement. He was instrumental in the elimination of segregated public 
facilities in Atlanta and promoted the cause of nonviolence through 
peaceful student protests in a time often marred by racial violence. 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other influential 20th century leaders 
considered Dr. Mays a mentor and scores of colleges and universities--
from Harvard University to Lander University in South Carolina--have 
acknowledged his impressive achievements by awarding him an honorary 
degree.
  After retiring from Morehouse after 27 years, Dr. Mays did not fade 
from the spotlight--far from it. He served as president of the Atlanta 
Board of Education for 12 years, ensuring that new generations of 
children received the same quality education he had fought so hard to 
obtain back in turn-of-the-century South Carolina. Dr. Mays said it 
best in his autobiography: ``Foremost in my life has been my honest 
endeavors to find the truth and proclaim it.'' Now is the time for us 
to proclaim Dr. Benjamin Mays one of our nation's most distinguished 
citizens by awarding him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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