Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement

“A compelling biography of one of the most significant leaders in the struggle for African American civil rights in twentieth-century America. . . . An important contribution to better understand the critical role of black colleges and their presidents during the civil rights era.” — Journal of American History

“Jelks helps to bring the 'religious dimension' back to the center of the conversation.” — History News Network

“A civil rights pioneer gets his due.” — Kansas City Star

“Jelks should be applauded for depicting twentieth-century race relations through the eyes of Benjamin Elijah Mays. . .[In doing so] he provides readers with a new perspective on the fight for civil rights.” — North Carolina Historical Review

“Introduce[s] this imminent scholar, educator, and activist to a new generation while offering fresh perspectives on his life and career.” — South Carolina Historical Magazine

“Jelks’s biography of Mays expands our understanding of the civil rights movement by thoroughly examining the ideas of the man who mentored those activists.” — Journal of Southern History

“A major contribution to American intellectual history.” — American Studies

“Jelks uses Benjamin Mays as a lens through which to view the institutions, ideas, and personalities that sustained black thinkers and theologians during decades of struggle. This book is essential in filling out the picture of African American intellectual and cultural life through much of the twentieth century.” — Paul Harvey, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

“This is no ordinary achievement. With excellent scholarship and critical reading, Jelks illuminates an often unnoticed and unheralded tradition of discourse and practice to reveal the shining truth that without a Mays you don’t get a Martin!” — Walter Earl Fluker, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership and editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, Boston University School of Theology

“Jelks demonstrates how this spiritual and intellectual giant reinvigorated the country’s religious faith and brought it to bear on contemporary problems. This compelling assessment of Mays is a powerful and moving tribute and will be taken seriously by scholars and public alike.” — Orville Vernon Burton, author The Age of Lincoln