{"id":111138,"date":"2017-11-09T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=111138"},"modified":"2021-02-09T17:26:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:26:14","slug":"video-statue-of-benjamin-mays-20-prophet-of-freedom-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/11\/09\/video-statue-of-benjamin-mays-20-prophet-of-freedom-unveiled\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Statue of Benjamin Mays &#8217;20, &#8216;prophet of freedom,&#8217; unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For Reginald Floyd &#8217;86, driving nearly three hours across South Carolina to witness the unveiling of the Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Statue was a small act to honor a civil rights giant.<\/p>\n<p>As Floyd approached Greenwood on the Benjamin Mays Highway, he thought about how his generation stands on &#8220;the shoulders of the giants who paved the way for our opportunities. I would not have missed this for the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em style=\"color: #009779;\">Video by Theophil Syslo of the Mays Statue unveiling on Nov. 4, 2017.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Benjamin E. Mays Statue Unveiled\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/242260737?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Designed and created by Jon Hair, the statue was unveiled Nov. 4 at the Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Historical Preservation Site, located a few miles from Epworth, where Mays was born in 1894.<\/p>\n<p>Mays, a 1920 Bates graduate, became a celebrated theologian, civil rights leader, and president of Morehouse College.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We thank God for the life of Benjamin Elijah Mays, a prophet of freedom.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He was known as \u201cthe schoolmaster of the movement\u201d for &#8220;inspiring generations of African American students and clergy to develop their intellectual talents and calibrate their ethical compass in order to challenge injustice,&#8221; wrote biographer Randal Maurice Jelks. One of Mays\u2019 students at Morehouse was Martin Luther King Jr., who called Mays \u201cmy spiritual mentor and my intellectual father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Rev. Otis Moss, a Mays protege, delivered the keynote address at the unveiling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We thank God for the life of Benjamin Elijah Mays, a prophet of freedom,&#8221; Moss told his audience. &#8220;He fought for freedom with every fiber of his body and being, all of his life. We celebrate a life and a legacy, remembering the greatness of an individual who blessed this nation and the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Mays Preservation Site, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2011\/05\/10\/south-carolina-benjamin-mays-20-museum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which opened in 2011<\/a>, features Mays&#8217; birthplace and home, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/03\/10\/benjamin-mays-living-legacy\/\">relocated from a pasture in Epworth in 2004<\/a>; a 19th-century one-room schoolhouse; and a barn-like structure that serves as as museum and theater.<\/p>\n<p>Bates was well-represented at the unveiling by more than a dozen alumni, parents, and staff, including\u00a0James Reese, associate dean of students for international student programs at Bates.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;His life is a legacy that we can all continue to learn from.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Mays always stated that Bates was an incredibly special part of his life, in addition to his education,&#8221; Reese said.<\/p>\n<p>Through a bequest, Mays established the Benjamin E. Mays Scholarship Fund at Bates. Benjamin Robinson &#8217;86, a Mays Scholar, said attending the\u00a0unveiling was &#8220;a tremendous honor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His life is a legacy that we can all continue to learn from,&#8221; Robinson said. &#8220;I am thankful I\u2019m here and honored to be in the presence of his greatness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alicia Hunter Warner &#8217;94 said the symbolism of the unveiling offers an important historical counterpoint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;South Carolina has done a lot recently to pull down statues and memorabilia of the Confederacy,&#8221; said Warner, who is a member of the Alumni Council. The Mays statue sends an important message for &#8220;civil rights and human rights in our country right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Joining Reese and Warner as official Bates representatives were John Amols &#8217;72, a past member of the Alumni Council, and Sally Ehrenfried &#8217;89, past president of the Alumni Association and member of the Bates Fund Executive Committee.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bates was well-represented at the unveiling of the Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Statue in Greenwood, S.C., on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1016,"featured_media":111221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,175,220,11009],"tags":[1596,10834],"class_list":["post-111138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-justice-poverty","category-service","category-the-college","tag-benjamin-e-mays","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1016"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111138"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111260,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111138\/revisions\/111260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}