Synopses & Reviews
In this first full-length biography of Benjamin Mays (1894-1984), Randal Maurice Jelks chronicles the life of the man Martin Luther King Jr. called his "spiritual and intellectual father." Dean of the Howard University School of Religion, president of Morehouse College, and mentor to influential black leaders, Mays had a profound impact on the education of the leadership of the black church and of a generation of activists, policymakers, and educators. Jelks argues that Mays's ability to connect the message of Christianity with the responsibility to challenge injustice prepared the black church for its pivotal role in the civil rights movement.
Review
"Jelks uses Benjamin Mays as a lens through which to view the institutions, ideas, and personalities that sustained black thinkers and theologians during decades of struggle. This book is essential in filling out the picture of African American intellectual and cultural life through much of the twentieth century."--Paul Harvey, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Review
"Jelks demonstrates how this spiritual and intellectual giant reinvigorated the country's religious faith and brought it to bear on contemporary problems. This compelling assessment of Mays is a powerful and moving tribute and will be taken seriously by scholars and public alike."--Orville Vernon Burton, author
The Age of Lincoln
Review
"This is no ordinary achievement. With excellent scholarship and critical reading, Jelks illuminates an often unnoticed and unheralded tradition of discourse and practice to reveal the shining truth that without a Mays you don't get a Martin!"--Walter Earl Fluker, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership and editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, Boston University School of Theology
About the Author
Randal Maurice Jelks is associate professor of American Studies and African American Studies at the University of Kansas and author of African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids.