BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS: SCHOOLMASTER OF
THE MOVEMENT, A BIOGRAPHY, by Randal Maurice Jelks (University of
North Carolina Press: 2012) p.181
“Seeking to be Christian in Race
Relations”
“Advocating for integration was, for
[Benjamin Elijah] Mays, equivalent to exercising the freedom of
conscience. All human beings are born free. Integration, Mays
emphasized, was not to be pursued because one felt insecure or
inferior, which indicated one was bound by a slave mindset: '[I]f
one seeks integration because he feels insecure; if he seeks it
because he discredits everything the segregated group has done;
because he thinks that nothing built up or owned by Negroes is worth
saving in an integrated society; if he seeks it because he thinks
another race or group is better than his own; or because he feels he
will enhance his own worth or lift his own social standing thereby—if
these are the reasons, they are definite signs of inferiority and
integration will not do anything to help such an individual.' In
Mays's thinking, someone seeking integration with a slavish mindset
would miss the point. His Christian conviction was this: 'Whatever
restricts, binds, or circumscribes one on the grounds of race,
whether [or not] in a segregated society, is a denial of the rights,
which God gives every man. Character, mind, fair play, social visions
and the ability to get along with others are the only standards by
which a man should be judged.'”
