From humble beginnings in 1894 until it was moved to its current location in 2004.

HISTORY

OF DR. MAYS BIRTH HOME

AUGUST 1, 1894 Dr. Mays was born and lived in the home in his very early years. IN SUMMER OF 1974 Dr. Mays, during the filming of Born to Rebel, is shown standing right in front of the home’s porch speaking about his place of birth.

IN NOV 1981 The intersection a few yards from his birth home was named Mays Crossroads by the S.C. State Legislature. There was a grand ceremony at the crossroads which included Dr.

Mays, Coretta Scott King, US Congressman William Jennings Bryan

Dorn, Lander University President Larry Jackson, State Sen. John Drummond, Dr. Mays’ niece Nettie Powell, Dr. Mays’ secretary Mrs. Sally Warner and her husband, Dr. Clint Warner, the Morehouse Glee Club Quartet, among other notables. At the time of the ceremony, the birth home had long been vacant and was being used as a barn to store hay by the Griffith family who owned the home.

EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER THE CEREMONY,

Congressman Dorn and Lander President Larry Jackson escorted Dr. Mays to the home and Dr. Mays verified that the home was his actual birth home. Dr. Jackson and Congressman Dorn stated this in a certified letter which is on file.

IT WAS AT THIS CEREMONY

Dr. Mays stated to his secretary, Mrs. Sally Warner, something to the effect that he hoped that his birth home could be saved one day. AROUND NOVEMBER 81 Congressman Dorn approached the owner of the birth home, Mr. Griffith, about releasing the home so it could be preserved. The owner stated in no uncertain terms, using colorful, racial language, that no one would get the home as long as he was alive.

IN 1997 OR 1998 Loy Sartin, the Director/Curator Emeritus of the Benjamin E. Mays Historic Site, asked a friend, Dr. Wilma Reeves, who had retired from Lander University, to call Mrs. Griffith (her husband had passed at this point), and ask her if she would be willing to release the home to the Greenwood Historical Society. Wilma called and had a very pleasant conversation with Mrs. Griffith until the point that she asked her if she would consider releasing or selling the home to the Historical Society, whereupon the conversation was discontinued as Mrs. Griffith stated that she did not want to discuss it. IN VERY EARLY 2002 A meeting was held in Greenwood with the following in attendance: Dr. Larry Jackson, Dr. Joe Patton (CEO of GLEAMNS), Mr. Frank Wideman (President of Self Family Foundation), Mr. Gonza Bryant (Greenwood County Councilman), Mr. Steve Brown (Greenwood City Manager), and Kenneth Driggers and Jennifer Satterthwaite of the S.C. Palmetto Conservation Foundation. At this meeting, the participants discussed possible plans to secure the home.

SHORTLY AFTER THIS MEETING Mrs. Griffith was approached and she agreed to sell the home to the S.C. Palmetto Conservation Foundation for $4,000 with the stipulation that it be removed from her property.

IN LATE 2004 Dr. Mays’ birth home was moved, at the insistence of Dr. Joe Patton and Councilman Gonza Bryant, to vacant land on the GLEAMNS campus because of the historical

nature and meaning of the campus to African Americans in Greenwood.

GLEAMNS (acronym for Greenwood, Laurens, Edgefield, Abbeville, McCormick, Newberry, and Saluda counties) is a state Community Action Agency established in Greenwood in 1966 - one year after President Johnson started the national War on Poverty. The GLEAMNS campus encompasses the old Brewer School which was originally founded in 1872 as the Brewer Industrial Normal School for Colored. It served as a black high school as far back as the 1920’s up until Greenwood integrated its public schools around 1971-72, at which time it was converted to a Greenwood School District 50 middle school. The campus also encompasses the old Brewer Hospital for blacks during segregation as well as the building which housed the black nurses. The Brewer Lab trained about 75 percent of the black nurses in the State of S.C.