Greenwood County · Marker 24-19
Benjamin E. Mays Birthplace
at the Mays House Museum, 237 N. Hospital St., Greenwood
Front inscription
This house, originally 14 mi. SE on U.S. Hwy. 178 in the Epworth community, was the birthplace of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays (1894-1984), Baptist minister, college president, author, and civil rights pioneer. Mays was the eighth child of Hezekiah and Louvenia Mays, both born into slavery. In 1911 he left the tenant farm where this house stood to attend high school at S.C. State College in Orangeburg.
Reverse inscription
Mays, a graduate of Bates College and the University of Chicago, was an early and forceful opponent of segregation. Best known as president of Morehouse College, in Atlanta, 1940-1967, Mays was described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as his “spiritual mentor.” Mays’s inspiring memoir Born To Rebel (1971) is a civil rights classic. This house was moved here, renovated, and dedicated as a museum in 2011.