Museum Dedicated to Civil Rights Leader and Educator Benjamin Mays Opens

Museum Dedicated to Civil Rights Leader and Educator Benjamin Mays Opens: A museum dedicated to the life of Benjamin E. Mays, an educator who was an early inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. and was often referred to as the father of the civil rights movement, opened last week.

Civil rights leader Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, spoke at the dedication of Mays’ childhood home in Greenwood’s Epworth community.

“It all started right over here,” Young said, pointing at Mays’ small childhood home. “It started here in a log cabin and a cotton patch. If it hadn’t been for Benjamin Mays, there probably wouldn’t have been a Martin Luther King. Nor an Andrew Young, nor a (former Atlanta mayor) Maynard Jackson. In fact, the legacy that came out of this little area is, forgive me, I don’t mean any heresy, but it is like Jesus coming out of the little town of Bethlehem.”