Benjamin E. Mays
Benjamin E. Mays
Benjamin Elijah Mayswas an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights, and the progression of political rights of African Americans in America. He was active working with world leaders, such as John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and John D. Rockefeller, in improving the social standing of minorities in politics, education, and business...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth1 August 1895
CountryUnited States of America
If what is communicated is false, it can hardly be called communication.
I believe everyone is born into the world to do something unique and distinctive.
It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.
The creation of the spiritual was no accident. It was a creation born of necessity, so that the slave might more adequately adjust himself to the conditions of the New World.
It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.
Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.
For nearly a century, the South made itself believe that Negroes and white people were really communicating. So convinced of this were the white Southerners that they almost made the nation believe that they, and only they, knew the mind of the Southern Negro.
Man is what his dreams are.
In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks.
You have the ability, now apply yourself.
A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.
[H]owever hard the road, however difficult today, tomorrow things will be better. Tomorrow may not be better, but we must believe that it will be.
It isn't a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for.
It isn't more light we need, it isn't more truth, and it isn't more scientific data. It is more Christ, more courage, more spiritual insight to act on the light we have.